Five days ago, Facebook introduced the ability for users to comment on items in other users’ Mini-Feeds. Although this is certainly an interesting function and provides an additional means of interacting with contacts, is it enough to keep users engaged with the site?
The mystery
I’ve noticed something over the past year or so: that Facebook is becoming less and less a service for interacting, communicating, and socializing and more a utility for looking up information such as phone numbers, recent photos, and names and addresses. I recognize, of course, that my perspective is somewhat skewed in that I’m a “first generation” Facebook user (that is, I joined when the site was open only to .edu branded e-mails) and also that it’s the summertime, when curricular activity is at a low, but I’ve definitely spotted a decline of both content and communication within the Facebook service.
Why is this? Why do my friends and I spend less and less time on Facebook, even though the site is becoming continually more feature-rich?
The reasons?
It’s my thought that the cause of the content and communication decline is the fact that there are very few ways to actually meaningfully interact within the service. Ever since its contentious introduction, the Mini-Feed has been central to the Facebook experience. However, if we examine this feed and make note of the items that show up within it, it’s clear that possibilities to interact with these Mini-Feed updates are low. Let’s look at a few that pop up on my feed:
- Two of my friends becoming fans of a website
- Someone writing a note about vacation plans
- Two individuals that discovered each other using Friend Finder
- Someone adding a new application
- Five friends receiving gifts
- A posted link
Out of this list, the only two items I really have any authority to comment on or start a discussion about are 2) and 6), which both provide a means for me to comment on that specific exchange. All of the other items are really one-way information exchanges; that is, I’m able to see that they’re occurring but really have no method of engaging with them.
To put this more simply, the current issue with Facebook is that there’s very little to DO on the service, in its current incarnation. If I want to do any more besides write notes, share items, send messages, or add friends, I need to look to Applications or real-life exchanges to meet these ends. To me, this is quite a concern.
Mini-Feed comments: a fix?
Adding the commenting capability to the Mini-Feeds is a nice touch, but I’m afraid that this feature is not enough to fix this content and interaction issue. The main reason? It’s too time-consuming to click through to a friend’s profile and leave a comment there. If I was able to comment on Mini-Feed items from my “Home” tab, that’d be one thing (and I suspect we may see this feature soon), but I can’t. I have to spot an item worth a comment, navigate to that friend’s page, comment, and return.
Until the commenting feature is made more convenient, I think it’s highly likely that its usage will be picked up by the greater Facebook community.
What do you think?
Think there’s enough to do on Facebook compared to other social media sites? If you sit down in any big lecture hall, you’re bound to see a few students browsing Facebook. The question I have is: what exactly are they doing? Besides learning more about their friends, I fear the universal answer may be “not much.”
