Monday, February 22, 2010

Has Social Networking Run Its Course?

A recent poll - unscientific and all - has resulted in some 400 readers of Internet Evolution to call for the elimination of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. The poll asked the question: "If you could eliminate one Web service, which one would it be?" Biased, for sure, but nevertheless food for thought.

There are plenty of reasons why social networking could run out of steam. It started with teenagers, notorious for social interaction but - - between themselves. Now that it has gone mainstream, it loses its appeal to them. Also, the privacy and security implications of social networking are becoming increasingly evident to everyone. That will turn off many people - as it already has employers and other organizations.

That said, people are inherently social and it could be that social networking is just going through a fine tuning stage. Stay tuned.

For a write-up on the survey, follow this link.

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