NiallOK’s Blog

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I was just starting to get disillusioned with social networking. I thought it was only really for kids (and, possibly for bands - which is why I used MySpace for the radio show) and I always found the sites (well, Bebo and MySpace anyway) to be fairly basic and full of badly designed and far too content-heavy profile pages (although Bebo HAS improved recently).

I even went so far as to delete my Bebo account recently for a couple of reasons - one being the “it’s for kids” excuse and the other being that I couldn’t really keep up with it. That was when I had a “life” however (y’know… fiancèe, home, mortgage, bills, job, etc.). Now that all that’s gone (again!) and I’m rebuilding from scratch, I’ve rekindled my interest in social networking - particularly a certain site called Facebook (or ‘Facebookywook’ as my WEIRD youngest brother occasionally insists on calling it.).

I know I’m coming to the site late (I signed up last September, mostly at Mulley’s suggestion, but only really got into it properly in the last week) but it’s totally sucked me in! Plus, it constantly continues to surprise me with how well it’s put together and how well it uses dynamic HTML and other scripting innovations to create something which feels more like an application than a web site but is still incredibly user friendly.

Granted, at the time of writing, I’ve only got 21 friends, but the difference this time is that they actually ARE all either related to me, or friends or acquaintances of mine - unlike on MySpace for example, where I’ve 299 “friends” most of whom I don’t know from Adam. And who’s Adam anyway?

I’ve caught up for the first time with cousins on the other side of the globe whom I haven’t seen in many a year. I’ve managed to keep in touch with friends from Louth, Dublin, Donegal and Galway and further afield. The only thing I don’t get is the apparent need to fill your profile up with meaningless applications… i.e.: I don’t actually care what my porn star name is, what wonderful trait each letter of my name represents or what character I’d be in some obscure American drama series I’ve never heard of. Neither do I care for the glittery, zoomy, slow-the-browser-down-y slideshows or countdowns or the re-hee-heeally* annoying (*: I’ve joined the “Doctor Cox is my Role Model” group, newbie) little applets that force someone’s browser to immediately play your favourite annoying song as soon as your page has loaded. My page is nice and simple… says who I am, my current mood, what I like, has a few (potentially terrifying) photos of me and some other bits and bobs.

I wouldn’t have put as much time into building a profile on Bebo or MySpace because it’s just not worth it. Facebook is more grown-up, more mature - and it makes more sense. Plus - it’s a better built and much clearer site. You won’t see any horribly gaudy profiles or pages that crash your browser - plus, it can be browsed on and interact with your mobile phone! - BONUS!

It’s clear to me that the headline “Bebo is better than Facebook, says study” is fundamentally flawed. It’s NOT better - it’s more popular, yes… (can you walk through a single shopping centre in this country without seeing crowds of kids at the Internet booths using bebo and nothing else?) - but it’s FAR from being better.

Anyway, I’ve waxed lyrical and talked shite enough for this evening. My Facebook profile is here. If we know each other in any way - feel free to be my ‘friend’.