Bryan: Past and Present (Blog 2)

Now like all my friends and acquaintances, I use Facebook to instant message (IM), email friends, create event invites, save photos and even blog. It has become my go-to application for what used to involve numerous websites and the Facebook interface is nowhere as good as those stand-alone programs.

It’s just convenient, all my friends are doing it, and like Chantelle said, Facebook is free. In a single location, all these tools allow me to stay in touch with friends around the world to a greater extent than I might have otherwise. My correspondence habits like many peoples’ are a bit lazy.

Perhaps that’s the beauty of Facebook. I don’t have to call my mother every week because she can see my updates and photos online. Sure, it could be argued that Facebook has become a long-distance social crutch for me. But if I couldn’t walk anyway, i.e. didn’t call my mum, isn’t it far better than nothing.

I don’t know about other people, but it doesn’t take much for me to feel connected to friends and family on Facebook. Just reading someone’s status update feels like personal contact and when we exchange comments, it’s as satisfying as a proper conversation - the irony of connectivity in a disconnected world.

Of course that hypersensitivity can quickly become negative when that online communication is unsolicited and or unwanted. For that reason, I ignore most groups, games and even friends who post updates on such things as virtual farm animals.

My personal tolerance for online public relations, marketing and political campaigning in what I perceive to be my personal Facebook space is therefore very low. But as the chart above shows, the use of such communication is expected to grow much like social-networking sites themselves.

The chart above was borrowed from Forrester Research in the United States. To read more about them go to http://www.forrester.com/rb/research. The research above was found on the Marketing Pilgrim blog at http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/04/forrester-social-media-growth.html.

With forecasts like this, I best get used to marketers invading my social media. Although like my acceptance of this medium, I’m sure I will come to embrace their presence. The key for me will be the receipt of such messages via Facebook friends and not direct from the marketers themselves.