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Its been almost a year since Facebook swung open their doors to everyone, regardless of affiliations to school or company. That was a big moment in Facebook evolution. There were dire predictions, as Mashable asked, Will Riots Be On The Way? My kids were horrified. Mom was in.
In the past year (May 06- May 07 actually), according to Comscore, there has been an impact. Traffic increased. There was also a demographic shift with trends suggesting that soon Facebook's demographics would mirror the Internet.
"In the months prior to allowing open registration, Facebook.com’s traffic hovered at approximately 14 million visitors per month. However, after Facebook opened its doors to the general public, visitation accelerated to reach a level of 26.6 million visitors in May 2007, up 89 percent versus the same month last year and 100 percent versus September 2006."
Then, three months ago, another door swung open, Facebook Platform. The results in numbers according to Inside Facebook are impressive:
- "3,261 applications have been created and vetted by Facebook (many more remain below the radar).
- 46 applications have garnered over 1 million net installations. Around 100 more have garnered over 100,000 users. Top Friends, the #1 Facebook app, has over 13 million users.
Translating that into a more personal experience, as mentioned, I joined Facebook when they opened their doors in September 2006. After the Facebook Platform, everyone that I knew, knew about, almost knew, and wanted to know seemed to be on Facebook. I have my own little social media on-line neighborhood of interests and interesting people.
It is like a social media theme park for me; there is an abundance of rides, entertainment, eye candy and people. Sometimes it seems too crowded and the lines are long....some times not. I bought the annual pass so I can drop in for a moment or stay for hours. I don't bring the kids; they have their own theme park.
So, has the Facebook experience really changed for the kids over the past year? Well, I can only speak aboutmy kids, their friends and parents. These are high school Facebook observations and experiences; two different high schools but nonetheless a small sample of one demographic, my personal observations and interpretations.
I would say that relative to the opening doors and their initial concern that I would friend them, friend their friends or otherwise embarrass them, nothing has changed. Now, am I embarrassed about some of the things they are doing on Facebook? How does all this, Facebook and Life, get reconciled?
Their Facebook is an online social network of their school friends and seems to be the hub of their off line activities. They do friend kids from other schools that they "meet" through their own network and some friend their own older siblings and their friend's older siblings. Not sure why the latter except for the simple addition to the friend count and maybe a bit of cool factor.
There does seem to be conversations between them and kids (or not really kids?) that they don't know from other schools and that is troubling. Why? Call me old fashioned....I like to know their friends and their friends' parents, or at the very least know that someone I know knows them. And then of course there is always the concern that someone just isn't a kid or who they say they are.
Their Facebook is something I don't think they quite "get." They seem to view their conversations as private even though last year a parent entered through her child's password and found some things she found unacceptable enough to alert other parents' about which resulted in several closed Facebook accounts.
Because of this or just because, parents are going into their kids' accounts through their kids' passwords and passing along the information to other parents. From much of the information that has been "passed along" and despite my inclination to trust my kids until given reason not to, my kids are now getting frequent "guest lectures" as we call them, from me about what I consider acceptable and unacceptable Facebook behavior on their part and on the part of their friends. The friends who write on their walls and post pictures with them in the shot.
Additionally, although they seem to understand enough to extend party invitations and arrange movies and dinners via more private means, text and Facebook messages, they think nothing of "discussing" the events
