On Social Networking Sites

I’m not a big fan of social networking sites, mostly because of privacy concerns. However, in the past I have used Hi5 and Facebook. I joined Hi5, which is very popular in Latin America, because many old friends had set up profiles there and at the time it made sense to join the network to keep in touch. Later, they were moving to Facebook, so, I also joined Facebook. This brings an important characteristics of social networking sites, and that is, users define and make them grow. Aesthetics, features, and other quality issues are secondary, without a solid user base, there’s not network.

Many of these websites share common features, such a profile page where users describe themselves and post pictures and videos, a private and public messaging system to communicate to each other, and “friending” capabilities. Users with similar tastes and interests can befriend each other, create groups and grow into communities.

Right now, the only social networking site I use is Twitter. Initially, I was reluctant to create an account because of the amount of bots and noise (nonsense tweets), but chose to give it a try. Twitter is a mix of micro-blogging and social networking, on it you “follow” people and can choose to monitor certain topics. I find it to be very good at extracting information once you carefully choose whose tweets to follow.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Facebook is the most popular, and seems to have many good qualities, such as its openness to third party developers which enhances the end user experience. Anyway, like similar sites, it can become a hassle to maintain a profile and another inbox besides your primary email address. 

I attempted to delete my Facebook account two years ago, and couldn’t finish the process. They seem to have worked out a scheme to prevent you from doing so, and keep your data forever.

For now, I’m sticking to social networking sites that provide me value. This doesn’t mean Facebook is not a valuable tool, but at least for me and my current goals, it’s mostly a liability. I find LinkedIn to be more useful.