Is Facebook dying? That's the topic of an astonishing New York Times article, entitled "Facebook Exodus." Author Virginia Heffernan starts by pointing out:

The exodus is not evident from the site's overall numbers. According to comScore, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the United States in July. But while people are still joining Facebook and compulsively visiting the site, a small but noticeable group are fleeing - some of them ostentatiously.

I've written about Facebook several times in the eHarbor Blog, usually noting its strength and rapid growth. Along with Twitter, it is leading the social-media revolution - or fad - that could change search engines and other aspects of the Internet or just peter out. This article grabbed my attention and demanded I discuss it.

You should definitely check out the New York Times article because it tells five stories about individuals who left Facebook for a variety of reasons. They are all quite compelling. One felt his privacy was violated by Facebook, and another felt she was wasting too much time on the website.

The feelings of privacy violation are completely understandable, and perhaps even unavoidable. Facebook is a social network so its information is not meant to be completely private. Perhaps people's concerns are just the result of their own carelessness in posting too much information or not studying the rules to keep it hidden. Or maybe it's a combination of shifting, hidden or hard-to-understand rules, as well as people's decisions not to read the fine print.

Heffernan notes, "As Facebook endeavors to be the Web's headquarters - to compete with Google, in other words, and to make money from the information it gathers - it's inevitable that some people would come to view it as Big Brother."

The part of the article that really took my breath away was when a prolific Facebook poster said the site felt dead to her a few months ago, even though it was still experiencing explosive growth. That struck me as incredibly odd. She noted the novelty of finding people on Facebook is wearing off, and I suddenly started looking at Facebook in a whole new light. Maybe Facebook's services never really had a future, but they were just a fun diversion - a flash in the pan.

The last paragraph in the New York Times article sums it all up nicely:


Is Facebook doomed to someday become an online ghost town, run by zombie users who never update their pages and packs of marketers picking at the corpses of social circles they once hoped to exploit? Sad, if so. Though maybe fated, like the demise of a college clique.

This internet marketing article was originally posted at www.submitsolution.com

An article by Robert D Lockard. More internet marketing articles can be found at www.submitsolution.com

Mandi writes: This is so true, I've been thinking about deleting my Facebook account for a while now. I haven't been on there in ages. Facebook have become so boring and time consuming. The apps don't function properly and when it changed the first time I stopped logging on as often, before that I would be on Facebook all day if I could.

10:28:07 Tue Nov 3 2009 CST


Albert writes: Just replace "Facebook" in that final paragraph with "online dating sites" and I've never heard a more accurate and concise description.

11:39:37 Mon Nov 2 2009 CST


ITmaster writes: I have started feeling that there are only 3 sites monopolizing in their Fields... Google, Youtube and FACEBOOK!!!

11:39:10 Sat Oct 31 2009 CDT


DeBorah writes: I have never really been enamored of Facebook's policies or format. I use it because of its popularity with peers and I keep hoping to attract prospective client interest. However, the constant inundation by people wanting to be friends without reading what I'm there for and Facebook's resistance to business make me sure I will probably be joining the exodus shortly. I much prefer sites like http://www.biznik.com and http://www.linkedin.com for their effectiveness and spam policies.

19:20:13 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


SEO Websites writes: I liked the article and shared it on Facebook too. Surprisingly, as much as I hate to agree with my wife, she stated the same ideals shortly after joining Facebook. Many of the author's objections are inline with my wife's, (mindless posts by members, the privacy issue, the big brother conspiracy, etc). I think that articles like this are starting to put the light on and people are realizing how dumb it really is. That, in combination with the constant changes for the worst at Facebook, (like moving the live feed activity stream from the lower right to the very top middle in order to make room for ads), will ultimately spell Facebook's demise in terms of actual people who like it... Maybe not ruin it, but it will probabaly be just another MySpace pretty soon... A virtual ghost town where the only live guests are marketers and bots collecting information.

7:42:22 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


Katya writes: Why should it be sad? Facebook seems to have become a universal mania, and any mania is doomed to end some day...

6:07:22 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


Jeff writes: I tendf to agree. That whilst technically FB is still exploding, users who have been on it for a while seem to be getting bored with it. The first change came when Facebook changed the way it worked. Therefore I, and many others, lost interest in it. Sure we all still post updates on it ut not quite so prilifically. Also once you have caught up with your old school friends and colleagues and had an initial catchup, that's it its over. Companies arte all now attracted to Facebook all trying to setup online profiles, but in reality all they are trying to do is use it to capture leads. I know, because I do it. However, the qaulity of leads is not great as it is difficult to attract the right person if you sell to a niche market. Anyway, FB users have cottened on to this and utlimately I belive Facebook will be doomed pretty much the same way that Friends Reunited, remember them, has become.

5:34:14 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


Jane writes: I just find the quality has deteriorated. It moves slow, applications don't function consistently well anymore. If it is not one thing it is the other.

4:16:27 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


diane writes: just joined. kinda bored already, just a lot of gab and i cant figure how to upload my own music yet which is why i joined

2:33:15 Fri Oct 30 2009 CDT


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