In the wake of Facebook announcing it now has 500 million "active" users, there has been another wave of dissertations and discussions about Facebook's growing presence and how/why people are using it.
In the New York Times, Joshua Brustein had an excellent column talking about how Facebook has become a utility for many people, which explains why it has become one of the least popular private-sector companies (along with cable companies and wireless telephone companies).
Facebook’s role as a utility (something Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about for several years) goes a long way in explaining the service’s appeal. While Facebook has some sizzle in terms of features, it thrives by offering basic communication tools so people can easily stay in touch with friends and family, and companies can engage with consumers.
Like a utility, Facebook meets meat-and-potato needs. It is why people use it on a regular/daily basis, much like they use the telephone or electricity. It may be that many people don’t like using Facebook but they have no choice given it has become one of the ways people are communicating online.
In other words, Facebook has become a necessary evil. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially if you’re Facebook and its investors.
Personally, I’m ambivalent about Facebook. I have a personal account and Facebook Page but Facebook is a professional tool for me. It is not a service in which I share a lot of personal details but, then again, I don’t use social media that way. As well, I’m not part of the younger demographic happy to publicly share anything and everything.
Despite my reservations about Facebook, it serves a definite role, which is why I’m a regular user. For me, it’s a business and professional utility. This is the key part of Facebook’s appeal – it fills a different role for different people, depending on your interests and needs.
In that sense, Facebook is the ultimate digital utility that everybody uses even though they may not particularly like the company providing the service. Facebook may not really care whether you like them or not; all it cares about is if you use the service on a regular basis as opposed to rivals such as MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, etc.
Links:
- Facebook is to the Power Company as…. (The New York Times)
- Facebook: Can’t Love it, can’t live with out it (Globe & Mail)
Mark,
I am one of those people that was an early adopter of Facebook and for a couple of years enjoyed using it. After a while though I started not liking the service as much and for a variety of reason decided to delete my account. But living without facebook, in today’s world is almost let deciding to not have a television or doing without a phone. You end up cutting yourself off of a major part of our society. I am still happy about my decision to leave FB, but I do miss it sometimes.