Facebook Hits the Mainstream

If you read here, you’re probably on the leading, if not bleeding, edge of the early adoption curve. Bit of a mixed metaphor, so let’s say early adopter scythe.

Anyway, Facebook is old news. For about the last year or so, I’ve rarely logged into Facebook; I guess the sheep-throwing and incessant poking and super-poking got monotonous for me, and I lost track of Facebook’s biggest and best feature.

The network and its effects.

Lately, I’ve been reminded of how much I like Facebook by a slew of adds from old high school classmates. As mentioned before, I don’t come from the generation of digital natives, so the appearance of my old chums from the late 80s and early 90s signals Facebook’s passage into the mainstream.

I also have a MySpace account, and not a single person from that same category of old high school buddies has friended me over there. It’s not entirely a fair comparison, but it says a lot for Facebook’s ascent to the thrown as the social network, erm utility, for people new the whole thing.

The appearance of these old friends has reminded me how really cool social networking can be. I’ve reconnected with a dozen or so friends lost to me over the intervening decades, which has made me realize again how cool, fun, and useful social networking is.

I’m pretty sure some of the people are simply collecting friends because some of them I barely remember, and I doubt they remember me any more clearly. But that’s part of the fun of networking, almost like collecting trading cards; you know you’ve done it too, don’t lie.

For many companies, becoming mainstream means a loss of coolness, but I think Facebook has done a good job maintaining their cool factor, even in the face (pun intended) of stiff competition from upstarts and MySpace.

While we’re on the subject of Facebook, am I in the minority for liking the new UI? I know Rich likes it too, but there seems to be a backlash against it. I’m not sure why. I think it uses space much more efficiently, and they’ve introduced a few neat elements.

I especially like the chat design and the applications bookmark. Segregating apps from the profile was a solid choice too.

What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Why?

What about the mainstreaming of Facebook? Have you noticed this too?

Find the comments.

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This entry was written by Jake and posted on 30 September 2008 at 3:05 pm and filed under general. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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