Censorbook

The other day my 18 year-old brother sent me this message on Facebook:

“did you post that video? pretty disgusting if you did”, mom listened to her first rap song lol

Mom wasn’t so enthused about the Childish Gambino’s Freaks and Geeks music video he posted (it’s not the most PG song).

Unfortunately, Facebook’s success attracting 600 million users - including your mom, little cousin, and grandpa[1] - forces us to censor ourselves.  Yes, you can modify your privacy settings or create private groups but ultimately defaults matter and the majority of users are either ignorant to these options or simply don’t want to go through the pain of setting them up.

More than anything else, Facebook should be concerned about their censored ecosystem as it will encourage stale, shallow interactions between its users.  There’s a stir of startups creating more private, intimate social networks (e.g. Path, GroupMe, Frid.ge).  In addition, users are flocking to verticalized social networks designed for specific interactions or media (e.g. Instagram for photos, Foursquare for location, Quora for questions).

Will the downfall of Facebook come from its success?

[1] Bridging the gap between our online and offline social network (presentation)