Sunday, March 15, 2009

BBC NEWS | Technology | Social networks 'are new e-mail'

if that’s the case (i.e., if social networks are new e-mail), does it mean people will hate social networks in the future as much as most people hate email today?…

With more than 175 million users Facebook is the dominant platform for status updates.

Ari Steinberg, an engineering manager at the firm, told BBC News: "It's been interesting to see the way people change the way they communicate.

"You used to e-mail content to people and you had to choose who you wanted to e-mail it to and you didn't know if your friends even wanted to see it.

"Now you can passively put something out there and let people engage with it."

The simplicity and ubiquity of some of these services is beginning to see activity feeds and status updates replace many of the uses to which e-mail was once put.

FWIW I’m already seeing a jumped-the-shark curve with many Twittering people, reminiscent of a common blogging pattern over the last decade as well – big initial enthusiasm, followed by an activity drop-off, perhaps an occasional note about being busy but with the best of intentions to resume regular activity “real soon now,” and then silence…

BBC NEWS | Technology | Social networks 'are new e-mail'

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