It seems to me that virtual communities like Facebook , Myspace and Second Life are just fashion accessories that are this season’s must haves. Is there a point when these social utility networks become old and outdated and ‘so last week’?
For myself, last year was the year of Myspace. Only the cool kids had Myspace accounts. But the particularly ultra cool kids had personalised backgrounds and made friends with Zach Braff. Then this year the Facebook craze hit hard. And all of a sudden Myspace didn’t seem that new or cool anymore.
But how long will the Facebook craze go on for? Surely there has to be a point when the amount of friends you know reaches a maximum. And then what? When the site has nothing new to offer people will get bored and stop logging on. I know this happened to me with Myspace because it got to the point where only random people were asking to be my friend. I got bored with the site and stopped logging on.
The reason I started thinking of this topic is because I started thinking about the people who have left their jobs to start solely producing their income by selling virtual products on Second Life. Surely this is a major risk, because like Nelly Furtado says all good things must come to an end. The virtual world Second Life can’t go on forever because it is a fad, just like how the Friendster fad died. Fashion trends whether they are virtual or not follow the same life line. The trend emerges with the underground people who are in with the know, it hits the mainstream and explodes commercially and then as soon as the nine year olds start sporting the trend then you know it has died and has lost all sense of ‘coolness’.
Maybe I’m just a pessimist, but I don’t think that virtual communities are here to stay. Maybe the concept will stick around for sometime but I don’t think you’ll catch me logging in Facebook or Myspace in 3 years time. What do you think?
Interested in this argument? Check out this site that also talk more on the subject as well as here .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment