From the Bottom of My HEART: Why are we so addicted to facebook?

It is ironical.
I am writing a post using blogger – a google

product, which is about facebook ( or “THE FACEBOOK”, as it is initially known to be) and by the time you read this I had already posted the link to this blog on whatsapp!(Ofcourse apart from facebook).

Oh! Now, you see how hard it is to first write something and then promote the same?

Note: you can help me by liking my page on facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/ishikaguptablogs

Okay enough of promotion, coming back to the topic.

Those who are friends with me on facebook would say – “she is writing about this topic as she just watched “The Social Network” movie.”

But let me tell you this is not the case.

Or it may be.

Okay it is.

May be if have not watched the movie yesterday, I would have been writing about the union budget (Grin).

I am a facebook addict! Or probably am addicted to everything on internet sigh

It’s hard to admit but I am. So do most of you.

It’s quite tough for me not to check my facebook account for at least once in 2-3 hrs.

Well I don’t think so there will be anyone who doesn’t know about facebook, but still I would like to tell you about it.

Facebook, a social networking site was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities and later to their high-school students.

Facebook had over one billion active users as of September 2012.


thefacebook home page in 2004

Facebook homepage 2014

So, what’s there in FB that have made us so addicted to it?

Let me recall my journey of social networking.

It was when I was in class 11th I came to know about ORKUT. It was a hit among Indians then.

Orkut was also launched in 2004. It was started by Orkut Büyükkökten and was later purchased by Google resulting in more publicity of Orkut and more members, though it is not much famous in United States it has many fans and members from India and Brazil.

Orkut's profile on Orkut

Orkut was a complete different thing. There we had friend request, scrapbook, chat options and what not.

I remember being as silly as, when a boy(with whom I was not much friendly) sends me a friend request, I used to ponder for 30 to 60 minutes whether to accept the request or not, as if it was a marriage proposal (embarrassed).

I remember that beautiful 1hour I used get on alternate days to access orkut using my brother’s cell phone.

But, then something happened. There came a new buzz in the market. Something called facebook.

I eagerly sign up to the same.

But, I found it too complex. The walls, home page, apps everything was just so difficult to understand.

So, I decided to remain loyal with orkut and forgot about facebook.

Later I noticed fewer people remain active on orkut. What was that keeping everyone so busy or it was just me who was so idle?

I found everybody going gaga over facebook.

I was forced to again log in to facebook.

After the forced use of the website for about a week, things started to get easier. Now, I understood what the wall is, what is the purpose of “like” button (oh! by the way do you remember I asked you to “like” something?”), notifications and so on.

I develop likeliness towards FB. Now, it seems much easier to me.

Moreover I found it better than orkut as now you can know if your profile picture was good enough, your privacy was in your own hands, and you had a wall instead of scrapbook.

Plus no recent visitors tab, a plethora of unlimited apps, it was the photo tagging that really gets the "cool factor" experience going and everything was so enchanting.

Orkut was better than Facebook earlier but as the time passed Facebook overtook Orkut.

It was not that orkut did not try to be competitive.

On 28 November 2009, Orkut was redesigned and many people loved it but on the other hand many people said that it was a copy of Facebook and Twitter.

The migration was swift and almost cruel. The land now wore a deserted look. Former citizens occasionally visit, just to see if something was stirring. Nothing ever stirred there anymore. It just was not happening.

From September 30, 2014, the land is going to be no more.

Orkut was for most Indians the first social networking experience.

But, what was there in Zuckerberg, a Harvard drop out’s facebook that keeps us so engaged?

I think it is the hardwork of its founders and a more important thing in which they believe according to me – “Change is good”.

I am always annoyed that when you just start to get used to the current setting of FB, you get something new. But, this may be the thing that keeps it going as the world’s biggest social networking site.

But the picture is not always greener for FB. Recently there came a time when whatsapp started to take hold over facebook’s user base (especially in INDIA).

WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smart phones and selected feature phones that uses the internet for communication.

WhatsApp Inc. was founded in 2009 by US citizens Brian Acton and Jan Koum (also the CEO), both former employees of Yahoo!, and is based in Mountain View, California. Company employs 55 people.

The main features of whatsapp are:

Simplicity (your phonebook automatically become your friendbook),

Speed (instant messaging which requires only an internet connection),

Privacy (more personal then facebook as you have to exchange phone numbers to be connected),

No Advertisements that annoys user (that means virtually no revenue).

Whatsapp was co-founded by Brian Acton, who himself as well his idea of whatsapp were rejected by facebook inc. earlier.

Later, he went on with watsapp and in mere 5 years builds a large user base of 400+ million active monthly users.

In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users use the service each month. As of 22 April 2014, WhatsApp had over 500 million monthly active users, 700 million photos and 100 million videos are shared each day, and the messaging system handles more than 10 billion messages each day!

Zuckerberg probably gets the hint and decided to acquire whatsapp, something with negligible revenues, for a whooping US$19 billion.

The company is currently in the process of takeover after Facebook Inc. announced its acquisition of WhatsApp Inc. on February 19, 2014.

It seems zuckerberg wants to own all the popular social media!

The term “actoned” became popular, which indicates a revenge of US$19 billion for rejecting Brian as a part of facebook earlier.

Now, facebook owns whatsapp but whatsapp continues to work as an ad free, independent entity under facebook.

Moore's law states that computer technology doubles every 18 months. In the case of Facebook, Zuckerberg's Law should state that social media connections double every six months.

Will an even more dazzling world appear? Will Facebook, a social networking site which is powered by 800+ million users, be abandoned too?

Though it does not appear likely as of now, a growing disenchantment with Facebook may be a sign.


Facebook homepage 2014

Sunday 13 July 2014

Why are we so addicted to facebook?