What is Facebook really good for?

Om Malik has an interesting post around the usage - or lack thereof - of communication apps within the Facebook platform. Om questions whether Facebook is really a platform for communication or just a place to hang out when you’ve got nothing better to do.

I think it’s that latter. I have been on Facebook for what seems like ages now, and to be honest, I can’t really find traces of people using it for serious, day-to-day communications - there’s just too much latency for any flow to be apparent. So what is Facebook really good for, and what does the future have in store for the service?

Not necessarily a lot. I do think that Facebook is just a place to hang out, when you’ve got nothing better to do. It’s a testing ground for social experiences on the web. Its a place where you can try out what it means to connect with people without investing too much of yourself in the end. It a large scale experiment.

If that is so then what happens when people have experimented enough and want to move to the next level? How does Facebook facilitate that transaction?

In my honest opinion they don’t. Because since the usage patterns have become cluttered with time-wasting apps, the Facebook-experience has become rather one dimensional. It becomes a prison its hard to break out of in the sense that trying to change ones pattern is a bigger feat than just abandoning the service and looking elsewhere for that natural next step.

Facebook is like a bar a late Friday or Saturday night: An excellent place for meeting strangers and flirting. But a really bad place for striking deeply engaging relationships that lasts.

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.