Plugging In Too Much
Facebook and MySpace have gone too far. Seriously.
I remember a few months back when they added in this little feature called “applications” on Facebook. At first, some of them weren’t too bad: music players, other websites functionally integrated (Last.FM, LiveJournal, Digg, Fark), extended info boxes. Things that were mostly useful. That you could use more things alongside it, but they didn’t get in the way.
Then, came the vampire applications where you “recruited” friends. Then werewolves, then pirates, then ninjas, then major movie spin-offs. Then different versions of each pirate or werewolves. Then they added quizzes as applications so you could have some subjective quiz tell you that you’re a certain type of martini because of how complex you are as a unique and beautiful butterfly that you believe yourself to be from the biased questions that some generic person made with a stock Geddes photo attached. Just like all of the quizzes we used to find all of the time of “Which Power Ranger are you?” or “Which flower are you?” or my personal favorite, “Which My Little Pony are you?” Because lord knows my life isn’t complete without knowing that one.
Slowly, Facebook allowed ways to block applications, but for each application you block, there’s another five that you’ll have to soon block that are like it that some other company creates but tweaks a feature to make it into their own. And while I didn’t think it could get worse…
It did.
Because now, MySpace added applications too. And they made it a little harder to block them initially. But believe me, the second I found out how I could block it? I did.
My problem, though, is why do we need all of these applications?
Think about it. A social networking site should be simple, which is what Facebook originally did which distinguished itself from MySpace. It should be something where you can provide an easy profile and communicate who you are simply, and it should be used to log in, catch up with friends, and then move on and live your life. So there’s no reason to need 200 profile boxes, cluttering up this basic interface. That’s why I like Facebook better than MySpace: because it doesn’t crash; because the mobile interface is easy to use; and because as a majority, the profiles are all standardized and not all glittered up.
Yes, I’m guilty of using both for more than what they are, but I still try to keep it professional to some regards. I just don’t need those polls and quizzes, and they’re such an eyesore and a pain.
But please, folks, think about them before you click on them. And if you’re on them? Maybe look at the applications you’re using and see if they really do help you out at all… I mean, really… Do they?
