PixelPush

Prior to writing this synthesis, I considered myself to be an atypical social media user, and I’ve discovered that my view of myself is only partially true—in some aspects, I go completely against the grain of typified users, but in others, I fall in line perfectly. Take Facebook as an example: I log in perhaps once or twice a week, look in the top left corner to see if I have any notifications, then I close the tab once I’ve drilled through those. This allows me to use the things I value in the service while tuning out the noise. (For the record, I think Facebook is wonderful for event planning, as well as other features, like personal messaging for people I wouldn’t ordinarily have phone numbers for.) This is completely outside of what I listed previously of the average Facebook user. I am, however, the image of a typical Twitter user. I’ve (personally) been unable to find a great use for Twitter. I have a handful of friends that follow me (and vice versa), but I honestly have not logged into the service in over six months.

I would like to talk about some of the differentiations, outside of pure usage statistics, that make each network what it is and how their conventions are moving the Web in different directions. One of the biggest thing’s I want to ponder over is the movement to “share the Internet”. Facebook and Google+ both have a claim on how to get users talking about things, and they both have a different take on how (and where) this functionality should work. Facebook certainly beat Google to the punch by first adding Like buttons throughout their own service. Seeing the popularity of the button, they took the concept external to the web via their (then new) Open Graph protocol, which allowed site owners to allow instant and easy sharing of their content on Facebook. This move was a huge step toward bringing the Web to social networking, rather than the other way around. Not to be outdone, Google answered in a big way. Being (by far) the most visited site on the Internet, Google had a shoe-in of a way to strike back. Every Google search result suddenly was paired with the signature +1 button, allowing a user of the most visited site in the world to instantly share things they’re obviously interested in with just one click (assume they are logged into their ubiquitous Google account, of course).

I think this kind of global sharing is, and will continue to have, broad implications. Regardless of which titan wins out the mindshare of the masses, the masses themselves will be the winners. With Google’s approach to the sharing button, their algorithm directly benefits from data gathered about who is sharing what. The result will be continually improving relevance of results for all Google searches, as well as improved and more tailored improvements and changes to their rapidly expanding Google+ social network. Facebook, on the other hand, will have to continue to react (as they always have) to newcomers, and they are being forced to innovate with their sharing features. Such is the tide of a free market. And it’s the embodiment of McLuhan’s vision of the future of media consumption—a global village of people communicating instantly and (arguably and variably) meaningfully about topics that transcend culture. People from even the most diverse and “incompatible” cultures and language barriers can easily communicate a “Like” or “+1”. It’s easy, fast, and universal.

Even if you’re like me and hardly use social media sites for their traditional use (example: listing what bands you like, what you’re up to today, who you’re with, etc.) there’s an undeniable draw to instant and effortless sharing of content via the Like/+1 convention. It’s the kind of simplicity that I think will engage many otherwise dormant users into taking an active role in content consumption and analysis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fox, Zoe. “Who Is An Average Facebook User?”Mashable (blog), November 18, 2011. http://mashable.com/2011/11/18/facebook-stats/ (accessed December 8, 2011).

Parr, Ben. “The Truth About the Average Twitter User.”Mashable (blog), March 10, 2010. http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/twitter-follow-stats/ (accessed December 8, 2011).

Perez, Sarah. Read Write Web, “Google Plus to Hit 20 Million Users by the Weekend.” Last modified July 12, 2011. Accessed December 9, 2011. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_plus_to_hit_20_million_users_by_the_weekend.php.

Sass, Eric. MediaPost, “The Social Graf.” Last modified October 18, 2011. Accessed December 9, 2011. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/160712/average-twitter-user-sends-half-a-tweet-per-day.html.

Social Media Statistics, “LinkedIn.” Last modified 2008. Accessed December 9, 2011. http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/linkedin.