Has Facebook driven social interaction into a corner? (Part III)

In Parts I and II, I stated the following: Facebook allows its users quick and simple communication on a pleasant interface with millions upon millions of fellow users and the ability to individualize one’s profile information.

In my last post, I partially looked at the “pleasant interface” portion of my previous summarizing statement. I discussed the possible reasons for Facebook’s dominance over other communication media, and whether people truly prefer to communicate in the fashion Facebook and social networking sites provide.

I now wish to answer my last question: Have the tastes of people changed since the onset of social networking sites concerning how they would prefer to communicate (regardless of the time and money factor)? Let us begin with the assumption that people’s tastes have indeed changed since the onset of the internet and the widespread use of all that it has to offer us. Under these circumstances communicators have consciously paused in their use of media to contemplate their personal preferences. There was a point, even for a split second, that they faced a fork in the road. They contemplated the costs and benefits of various communication media options available to them over the course of their lifetimes thus far. To these individuals social networking sites appear as the superior alternative. The process of phasing out other means of communication is founded upon the deliberate choice of the user population and their preference for newer communication media.

Yet what are the incentives for such a change? How did users decide that they prefer Facebook chat to mailing a letter? I believe the answer lies in the modern user’s wish to be entertained no matter how mundane the central or original purpose of an activity. Social networking sites have turned interpersonal communication into a broad form of entertainment. Users can “tag” photos their friends have posted to the site, play games against their friends in real time, and leave humorous comments on their fellow users’ “statuses.” The attention of modern generations is growing harder to capture, and the shrinking span of this attention necessitates constant tending. Facebook and its competing sites feed this popular desire to be amused by providing their user population with newer and more exciting methods of communication. Users are no longer just linked to one another, they are linked to the rest of the world wide web as well. Users can now post Youtube videos, internet hyperlinks, invitations to play online games, and incentives to attend events outside of the virtual world. A letter cannot do all that, let alone simultaneously. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that the technologically savviest of generations prefers this medium to other forms of communication. The vicious circle of stimulation begins with a desire to be entertained further, yet upon being stimulated people build up a resistance to this form of amusement and it quickly becomes antiquated. How soon will it take Facebook’s user population to abandon it as “unexciting” and demand more exotic forms of communication?

The appearance of Twitter and Dailybooth offered alternatives and complements to Facebook and other social networking sites that increase levels of stimulation. The ability to broadcast one’s minute-to-minute activities or create photo albums that illustrate one’s day further connect one’s social network and attempt to fulfill consumers’ ever-expanding need for more.