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Facebook Might Be Taking Over Your Entire On Line Life

August 16, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Social media sites seem to come and go in popularity but Facebook is trying to position itself to not only survive but to be the site which aggregates everything you do on line. The Washington Post sees their acquisition of FriendFeed as an important step in this direction. Here is what the author envisions:

The goal is to make automatic that which is all too annoying to do manually. If I like an article enough to Digg it, why should I then have to tell all my friends via Facebook or Twitter, as well? The social-media landscape has become disparate enough — so many start-ups controlling so many different pieces of our lives — that we need a central place that will organize all of our actions for us. That place is FriendFeed.

Facebook has recently shown that it, too, wants to be that place. For all of its genius in harnessing the collective procrastination of an entire planet, Facebook has usually asked you to come to it. For example, want to post photos on Flickr but not Facebook? Good luck telling your Facebook friends about it. In the past, while Facebook was building an audience, this walled garden helped it build its audience. If all your friends were on Facebook, then why not post your pictures there? After all, the point of digital photography in 2009 is to relive memories with the very group of people that lived through them in the first place. That group is most likely found on Facebook.

As with many computer and on line tools, success will be largely based upon how well they implement this. It has to be simple enough that people will quickly adopt it, but complex enough to allow for individualized restrictions. Some people would love the idea of their entire on-line life being easily shared, while others do prefer some degree of compartmentalization.