Post One: Social Media Landscape - Why Facebook is still the ring leader.

Frank Cavazza's Social Media Landscape made me question a few things about the ubiquity of Facebook as a social media tool and how it tends to appeal to the majority of users. He categorizes the various social media outlets into 7 broad categories:

• Publish

• Commerce

• Share

•  Discuss

• Location

• Games

• and Networks

Of the 7 categories, he later demonstrates in his comparison chart that Facebook (and Google) are able to fulfill all 7 categories therefore able to compete with both new and old tools. However, looking back on past social networking sites like MySpace, they were, in my opinion, never able to completely integrate into our everyday conversations. This is why when Cavazza states that there was a time before Facebook and there will be a time after Facebook. While I agree with the fact that Facebook is just a phase, I wonder if it will ever completely disappear from our society. Words associated with Facebook’s functions are directly integrated with everyday conversations. In some cases, people get offended when a friend does not know about current event or situation in their lives; “how do you not know? I posted it on Facebook last week.” However, the use changes when it comes to what Cavazza refers to as the late majority.

When I think of the late majority, I think of my mom who got Facebook around the same time as me but still uses it as if she is still learning the tool. While I primarily use Facebook for creating a profile and connecting with my friends by posting photos (primarily), my mom uses Facebook to share videos, comment on photos and like wall posts. She rarely writes on a friend’s wall or speaks with them through the chat function. I think Facebook has gone a shift from a conversation based tool to a personal branding tool –people are less inclined to interact through wall posts than they are using the chat function. You update your profile with pictures and links but you rarely “poke” any more  Though Facebook may phase out for digital natives, digital immigrants may constantly look for a new way to use the networking site to fit their needs.  

Personally, when looking at the 7 categories which Cavazza states, I see myself using the Publish ( Blogger, Twitter), Share (Instagram, YouTube), and Network (Linked In, Facebook) the most of the 7. I do however think that there are groups of users for each category. Though I may not use the tools under Games, my brother may and not use any of the Share tools.