Fakebook & the Truth of Twitter

Let's play a game!

Shut your eyes and think about your friends on Facebook. Think about those specific Facebook buddies who you have met at a party or met only once or twice, those who you know now only through their Facebook status updates. Now imagine you are walking down a busy street from wherever you live. Imagine that you are at a crowded bar downtown. You are enjoying yourself when you turn around and see that specific Facebook friend. What do you do in this situation?

A. Approach the person and start a conversation
B. Ignore the person like you don’t recognize them
C. Avoid approaching the person at all costs

For me, the answer is C. If you can honestly say that you would go up to someone you know primarily through social media interactions, then you are bold/crazy.

I can’t imagine what I would say if someone came up to me and said, “Hey Justin, it’s Dan…from Facebook. We’re friends on Facebook. I saw those pictures from Miami Ad School Minneapolis. Looks like a great place!”

Basically, I would immediately go home and change my privacy settings so that not even Agent 007 could ever access my profile.

The idea of randomly approaching Facebook friends came around when my college roommate (film major) was creating a documentary for class about social networking. Jokingly, we discussed how great it would be to capture people’s responses when you told them you only knew them through Facebook. The kicker would’ve been this line, “Oh, and by the way, want to go see National Treasure tomorrow night?”

Now imagine asking a Facebook friend out to dinner or to be your date for New Year’s…. Really awkward.

I think on the surface, many people see Facebook as a way to know those you don’t already. What the example above points out is that Facebook doesn't do that, but is built to keep us in close contact with those we already know well. The best reason is because of the privacy settings (barriers) each individual places on their profile, not allowing those they haven’t accepted as friends to see their profile. There’s simply too much information to let anyone see your profile.

But, just by the profile structure, it’s made for people who know you well personally because there’s no avenue for genuine personality. Facebook doesn’t ask what you are doing or who you are. Facebook asks what do you like? I like being a Democrat, I like being a Buddhist, my favorite movie is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I like Muse, I crochet frequently. What does this tell me about you though? Every 5th person over the age of 14 loves the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

This is where the difference in Twitter and Facebook really lies. Think about how you type a tweet vs. how you type information into your profile. How many times do you hit the backspace bar to edit yourself? I’m guessing with the Facebook profile, there is a lot more backspace action.

While Twitter is spontaneous and impulsive, Facebook features are rehearsed and heavily edited. Why though? Because one tweet is one part of your personality out of an endless amount of tidbits (infinity really, because you can tweet as much as you want). While Facebook’s profile is your one shot to show people who you are. But does it tell them anything if it is rehearsed and heavily thought about or just the ideal version of yourself?

Compare a list of tweets of someone to their profile. I bet you could read into someone’s character much better from his or her Twitter account. It would show you the way that they phrase things, the subject matter they care about on a daily basis, what they hate, their reactions (@tweets), their opinions, the links they enjoy, and the types of other Twitter users they follow. Twitter is for those you don’t know well currently, but who you would like to know better.

It’s a place to share thoughts, ideas, and opinions. It’s why I think Twitter is going to become a much more viable social networking option and eventually phase out Facebook in terms of relevance (it already is in a lot of ways). I won’t even begin to go into how the site layout, the applications, and the design principles make Twitter even a stronger competitor against Facebook, but that’s another major advantage.

With only 18 million users, why hasn’t Twitter caught on more? What Twitter didn’t include was a way to keep new users in tune the first few weeks. Facebook sets you up with your networks when you start, so users have some direction. With Twitter, it is an open space with no advice or direction given. Just don’t use more than 140 characters.

Facebook currently has 350 million users. That is more than the population of the United States, almost 12x the population of Canada, and nearly 36x the population of Sweden. Facebook is creating vast networks of connections, but certainly hasn’t fostered a sense of community. But they’ve made $500 million in revenue and are on the way to being in the billions.

Facebook has done a great job of being proactively reactive recently, trying their best to snub competitors by whatever means necessary (buyout of Friendfeed, Facebook Lite, adding status update, and chat features) I’m just not sure it isn’t getting too big, too spread out, too cluttered for it to feel real anymore. What started as a way to get college kids to get to know each other and socialize has turned into its own industry. And that might not be a good thing for Facebook.