Social Networking Enters the Age of Angst

by
in internet on (#3JY)
story imageThis is either the age of social networking, or it's not. It's either the future, or it's already a has-been. What the heck is going on?

Forbes has printed a thoughtful article on why Google Plus has failed to thrive . The Atlantic has written a piece suggesting Twitter is on the decline . Facebook's interest among teens seems to be slowing, while their "page reach" is down by 50% .

So, what's going on? Is it because, post- Snowden , everyone is tired of being spied on? Has everyone moved on to cooler platforms? Has everyone ditched social networking and gone back to Usenet ? Is it possible, as one author suggests, that privacy is now overtaking sharing on the 'Net? Or has everyone just found something more productive to do, like work in the garden?

[Note: this article has been cross-posted nowhere else. :) Want to comment? Here's the place.]

Re: Maybe this says more about journalists? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by reziac@pipedot.org on 2014-05-06 03:15 (#1DT)

Good points. I also like Slashdot, Pipedot, SoylentNews for making it *painless* to talk to interesting strangers over the internet. It's not *work*. Facebook is such a pain to parse, such a poor work-to-gain ratio, that it's not worth the bother (I've regretfully abandoned a group that's fairly important to me because the group owner migrated us to Facebook, and I can't stand slogging through that mess every day). And I could deal with a little monetization if it didn't negatively impact me as a user, but this "like" everything in sight has diluted the concept to "barely noticed in passing".

Oh yeah... Howdy, stranger!
Post Comment
Subject
Comment
Captcha
The number of body parts in the list hand, school and restaurant is?