Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Social Networks Will Not Be as Ubiquitous as Air
“We will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to be social,” says Charlene Li at Forrester Research, a consultancy. Future social networks, she thinks, “will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.” - The Economist
As much as I’m a marketer and would love to believe this, I think it’s just flat inaccurate.
This prediction completely discounts the fact that part of what makes the Internet the Internet, is because of commerce. Commerce exists by the nature of creating significant value to others.
Because of this, there will always be newer networks with newer technologies. Newer networks with different demographics. Newer networks with varying costs (not just currency) to participate.
Whenever I see claims like this, I come back to other functions that exist due to the fundamentally social nature of humans: BBS systems and message boards. While certainly widespread, they are separate and distinct in their own markets. You do not see my message board posts on Yahoo!’s customizable home page.
Will there be aggregators, such as with RSS and e-mail? Absolutely. But they will be separate functions and networks of their own.
Is it archaic that we go to coffee shops to be social, when we can make coffee or hang out with others in our own homes? What about going to restaurants to eat food, when we can eat in our own homes?
The reality is that a portal exists because people want disparate information aggregated. A social network exists because people want to socialize online. Search engines exist because people want to find things more easily.
There’s a reason why Starbucks isn’t known for their dinner meals.
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