Who's Joining Facecbook Now?

When I began college four years ago, facebook was just coming up in the world. I remember the excitement we all felt when they added more schools and you could begin to friend your friends from home. It started growing then and it just kept going.

After a little while I found myself wondering, who created the monster? What I found so great about facebook, it was only open to college students, was suddenly desecrated by the arrival of high school students and then the city networks. Now just about anybody can join facebook, and although this may seem good to some, I think it hurts the value of facebook.

According to the article, Social Graph-iti, the value of a network increases as does the number of its users, but this theory does not apply to social networks. Social networks are not actually about connecting to everybody, everywhere, but really about connecting to the right people in the right places. This undesirable growth of social networks has caused a movement to create smaller, more exclusive social networking sites.

Dr. Karen Stephenson writes that trust is a pivotal part of social networks. The problem we begin to see with facebook and myspace is that there is a lack of trust. People are concerned about who can find their information, or what creepy stalker may be friending them next. As the network gets bigger, trust gets smaller and so does the value of the network.

Just like any brand, facebook needs to learn the value of staying true to the wants and needs of its core market. And bigger is not always better.