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#facebookshouldnotbetwitter

My typical late-night routine of catching up on news and friends has taken a serious hit ever since Facebook launched its unfortunate redesign.

I’m a journalist and web site proprietor; I know most redesign backlash is really a learning curve for the lesser evolved among us who will eventually embrace the enhanced services in the new iteration. But this particular redesign breaks the rule. Facebook and Twitter used to offer drastically different experiences, and now - much like the tipping point on keeping up both a MySpace and a Facebook account that pushed me into deleting the former to streamline my social networking time - I feel like Facebook has become redundant. As soon as Twitter completes its crack into mainstream consciousness (and we’re close, now that Oprah is doing it!), I may have to *gasp* part ways with FB.

It didn’t have to be this way. For almost a year I really enjoyed using Twitter for news and professional purposes and Facebook for keeping up with friends and sharing personal photos and jokes. Now there’s no distinction because everything is about giving a thumbs up or down to frantic, less-personal status updates. And, of course, a deluge of icons announcing the latest pal to become a fan of Bacon or Hug a Korean Day (yes, for the record, I support both of those groups). Sure, you can still peek in on the life of a long-lost middle school classmate or conjure imaginative explanations for the pictures of your paramour with that really skinny blond chick, but those advantages only go so far in these noisy times.

I prefer Twitter because 1) There’s no obligation to be “friends” if you’re not; 2) You can cultivate a feed of valuable information based on your specific interests regardless of “friendship” or your level of access to cultural leaders; 3) It’s a more formal and, thus, appropriate forum in which to make professional acquaintances (and my FB account is now overwrought with such courtesy adds, just waiting to stumble across drunken photos I forgot to block); 4) The design is cleaner and more user-friendly; 5) Hashtags are way cooler and more specific than a thumbs up; 6) It’s easier to share information and measure the results using re-tweets; and most importantly 7) There is nothing that can’t be said in 140 characters. Seriously, nothing. *see post headline*

I’m not taking any drastic action yet, I’d just really appreciate it if Facebook could consider refining its unique value proposition.

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Discussion

2 comments for “#facebookshouldnotbetwitter”

  1. Ok, so I pretty much just tweeted my comment, but wanted it here too. I’m a fan of equal opportunity conversation :).

    IMO, FBook is for friends you already have. Not a place to meet new people or benefit from conversations taking place outside your circle. Because of that fact, FBook’s value add for me goes way down.

    I used to visit 10 times a day. Now, maybe 5 times a week. However, if Facebook opened the doors to it’s word-of-mouth treasure chest of conversations, I would be all over that. Because that actually sound interesting.

    Think you have another new blog post in your last paragraph. I agree there’s “nothing that can’t be said in 140 characters.” So why blog at all? Twitter is more real time and faster. I often don’t have time to focus on reading or writing posts. Almost seems kind of selfish when I could be tweeting with several people at once.

    If anything, blogs should be short and sweet and get right to the comments, and thus the conversation. That’s where the meat and potatoes are.

    That’s it. Really, this comment is too long. Sorry for taking so much time ;).

    Posted by Justin Goldsborough (JGoldsborough on Twitter) | April 21, 2009, 2:27 pm

  2. Thanks for keeping this issue alive, Maegan. I love Twitter, and I liked the old Facebook. You can’t be all things to all people, and Facebook needs to knock it off.

    Posted by Adriel Hampton | April 21, 2009, 8:17 pm

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