Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

May 5, 2009

Is Facebook Being Jinxed?

I guess it’s true what they say: “You can’t be right all the time!”

Stunned by the two latest articles I have come across this morning: 1) Mashable’s Another Facebook Scam Strikes, and 2) Read and Write Web’s Facebook Shutdowns RSS Feed App , I couldn’t help but wonder: Did we really jinx Facebook?

Throughout our blog, and as part of our plan to teach, learn from and give to our community, we have managed to praise and criticize numerous sites, applications and tools in the Web marketing field and social media and networking arena. For the most of it though, we were able, through research and commitment, to mainly find flaws and downsides to Facebook all along such as the beacon issue, the advertising scams, spam, its invasive nature and so on. Yet, it seems to me that when we finally found two great issues to address regarding Facebook’s radical innovation and continuous efforts of evolution, someone decided to take the front and attack them instead!

Is it fair?

I personally, for the first time ever, take Facebook’s side! I mean I think that we should try to, as they say: “cut them some slack!”, at least this time.

Yes, we do demand excellence in performance and consistent overall experiences, but really, how much can these technical geeks handle? After all, looking at myself a few years back, I was unable to cope with a few customer complaints let alone Facebook’s millions of users who seem to be growing more and more aware yet judgemental with time and knowledge.

Who’s side are you on this time?

Filed under: Controversial Picks, Web News — Tags: , , , , , — Beirut @ 12:02 pm

March 23, 2009

The Zuckerburg God Complex: We Sympathize But We Will Never Empathize!!!

This article is dedicated to the sole purpose of demonstrating pure empathy for Zuckerberg and genuine care for the Facebook community in efforts to try to correct the numerous mistakes that are being made in the name of social networking!

Ranging from Facebook’s thrive to make more money using the Facebook beacon and moving on to the “automated stalking” news feeds and ending with the biggest joke of all: Facebook’s forced redesigns, Marc Zuckerberg seems to be proving, day after day, the fact that he suffers from what psychologists call “The God Complex”.

As defined by the Urban Dictionary: “The God complex (funny video) is a psychosis based in uncontrolled narcissism, inflated arrogance and a perceived need to subjugate and/or ridicule other individuals deemed to be inferior or unworthy. Some believe that “God complexes” are particularly common in arrogant, highly educated, worldly, or powerful people.”

In one of my previous graduate marketing courses discussing “Marketing Mistakes and Successes”, it was evident that the 3 C’s: Conceit, Complacency and Conservatism were and are still the main three reasons why great corporations might be drawn towards failure. Looking at Zuckerberg’s approach to changing and continuously making additions and new platforms introductions, we can safely say that he is as far away as possible from complacency and conservatism. But what about conceit? Is conceit taking over the way things work at Facebook?

Since conceit is directly related to The God Complex I have defined earlier, it seems that Zuckerberg is drowning in shallow waters!

Disregarding the fact that 94% of Facebook users “hate” the new Facebook redesign and the fact many articles were written and Facebook groups were created to attack what I’d like to call the “God-like position” Zuckerberg upholds by doing as he pleases and even more severely disregarding user’s needs and arguments repetitively, and finally exploiting users’ data for personal gains and adding options that only compromise privacy, all seem to point towards one direction: Zuckerburg’s pure and unarguable obsession with power!

Zuckerberg: We feel with you, we really do, but honestly we are not ready to surrender to your will, not yet at least! I believe that most bloggers know exactly what they are talking about when they say: “The Facebook’s new design sucks” and “It is time you listen to your users!”. I’d like to think that I have read enough articles and case studies that can show you the way to “social networking redemption”! With a little effort, you can easily do what large social networking sites such as Google, Yahoo and others have done by utilzing Beta development to gain better insights about whatever changes you are planning to introduce in order to give your “smart” users more options and breathing room!

I just want what is best for us, the people who count: the users who have made your success possible! And since your profile indicates that you’re a Harvard graduated and we all know that you are currently Facebook’s CEO, which in turn gives you power, I believe that you fit the profile of a person suffering the God Complex! Thus, since part of finding a solution is realizing the problem, I just thought I should pinpoint you to the right direction

Wishing you a speedy healing and a hearty come back!

March 12, 2009

Facebook vs. Animal Shelters!

We can find a community almost everywhere! Nature is a great example of a wide range of different communities; take beehives as one example and a herd of sheep as another… But what factors transform a community into a social network?

While pondering on the idea of social networking, over and over again, I found this thought to be interesting: Animal shelters and how similar they are to our social networking environments, especially when comparing it to Facebook!

The following table explains it all!

Animal Shelter Facebook
Animals hunted and captured by Animal Control Users hunted and captured by peer pressure and the desire to “fit in”.
Animals stay because they are trapped in a cage and need to find a home & to be fed People stay because they are trapped in the metaphorical cage of needing to find love, friendships & entertainment
The cleanliness of the shelter is necessary for the well being of the animals The user-friendly platform is necessary to attract people to subscribe to the network & use it constantly
One size fits all cage, made from the same material to retain all animals Customized “cages” depending on what the user chooses his/her privacy settings to be! Example: Facebook and limited profile.
Building uncommon relationships between animals of different breeds. Example: Youtube clip Initiating unusual relationships through networks such as dating sites, crossing geographical and ethnic boundaries
Can animal shelters reserve animal rights and not be regarded as property, or used as food, clothing, research subjects, or entertainment? Will the future give us more examples to how some social networking sites treat us merely as page views and marketing sheep (maaaa)?
There are many type of shelters such as Open door centers, animal sanctuaries and such. Many different social networking sites are available such as dating websites, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
The sad element is when no one claims or tries to adopt the animals The sad element is when people lose hope when they finally realize that most of their online relationships are of weak ties (on thin ice), and very few are of real value!
Animals are injured, diseased or even die sometimes from overpopulation Will greed or overpopulation end the era of Facebook?

So, did Facebook really become a prison/cage? And are single users able to break this chain by simply deciding to not use Facebook? Can peer-pressure keep playing its role in trapping users into Facebook’s social maze?

I urge you to think about that!

(written by Beirut)