Most of the time, the early adopter set is a super-geeky and tech savvy bunch that’s wormed its way into beta testing a service through high-powered connections, scrounging for invitations on blogs, or a similar tactic. However, today’s most popular social network actually began by locking early adopters out– only allowing .edu-registered college students to join. As a result, two very different types of users have arisen within Facebook. Not only do these two groups use the service differently, but what’s more, they’re often unaware of one another, almost like two communities stranded on two nearby desert islands.
Who are first-generation Facebook users?
When Facebook left its Harvard-only beta version around 2004′s midpoint, college undergrads gobbled it up. My high school graduation in 2005 put me in only the second year of Facebook users, but already the service had picked up an enormous amount of steam. Students were using it to organize events, send messages, and more.
One of the first references to Facebook “generations” I came across was by a Read/Write Web article by Sarah Perez entitled, “How to make Facebook useful again.” She quotes an apt passage from Fred Wilson’s A VC blog:
I saw my oldest daughter get an invite to a party on Facebook, she accepted it, and then went to look at her accepted invite page. It was her social calendar, every party she plans to attend in the next two months is there. She noticed she had another event that night and then switched her acceptance to tentative. She uses Facebook the way I use Outlook.
Fred Wilson, a tech-savvy venture capitalist and likely an early adopter himself, found himself surprised at the utility Facebook offers this first-generation. Looking further, he probably would have noticed other behaviors typical of a first-gen Facebook user:
- using the Facebook message system as frequently as e-mail
- using the Events calendar for discrete real-world events
- accessing friends’ profiles for information, not activity
- tracking friends’ birthdays, relationship statuses, and more
- disliking change
As Facebook for the first-generation user is grounded firmly in real-life interactions, it provides a super glue of sorts between the on- and off-line. Early adopters don’t get this– not even Robert Scoble. Analysts even have the gall to call Facebook Social advertisements a failure without taking into account the larger variations between users.
Today’s Facebook users
The Facebook users of today are a dramatically different crowd. Individuals coming late to the game once Facebook opened to the public, online social networking fans, and even some graduating high schoolers show dramatic differences in behavior when they’re on this popular social networking site. What we college students that “grew up” with Facebook don’t see often comes as an enormous surprise: people really dislike it. That’s why talented tech bloggers write articles like this to try and convince the angry mob that it actually serves a purpose.
Some behaviors common to second-generation Facebook users:
- being just as likely to “friend” a real-life acquaintance or stranger
- utilizing a larger number of Facebook Applications
- a much smaller friend count
- a decreased use of all features besides the share function
To this group of Facebook users, the service is dull, uneventful, and often unrewarding.
A lesson for the future?
As hard as bloggers like Corvida attempt to bridge the gap between generations, it’s likely that the first-generation crowd will continue to dwindle until it’s dwarfed by this second group. As Facebook loses its connection to real life, users will return to it less and less. This all makes an interesting case study for anyone releasing any sort of web service: who you release your software to first can make an enormous difference. For Facebook, it meant the difference between an integral service for being socially involved online to, well, just another social network.
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Tagged as:
early adopters,
facebook,
first-generation,
social networking
Observations from a first-generation Facebook member
by Andy DeSoto on September 5, 2008
Who are first-generation Facebook users?
When Facebook left its Harvard-only beta version around 2004′s midpoint, college undergrads gobbled it up. My high school graduation in 2005 put me in only the second year of Facebook users, but already the service had picked up an enormous amount of steam. Students were using it to organize events, send messages, and more.
One of the first references to Facebook “generations” I came across was by a Read/Write Web article by Sarah Perez entitled, “How to make Facebook useful again.” She quotes an apt passage from Fred Wilson’s A VC blog:
Fred Wilson, a tech-savvy venture capitalist and likely an early adopter himself, found himself surprised at the utility Facebook offers this first-generation. Looking further, he probably would have noticed other behaviors typical of a first-gen Facebook user:
As Facebook for the first-generation user is grounded firmly in real-life interactions, it provides a super glue of sorts between the on- and off-line. Early adopters don’t get this– not even Robert Scoble. Analysts even have the gall to call Facebook Social advertisements a failure without taking into account the larger variations between users.
Today’s Facebook users
The Facebook users of today are a dramatically different crowd. Individuals coming late to the game once Facebook opened to the public, online social networking fans, and even some graduating high schoolers show dramatic differences in behavior when they’re on this popular social networking site. What we college students that “grew up” with Facebook don’t see often comes as an enormous surprise: people really dislike it. That’s why talented tech bloggers write articles like this to try and convince the angry mob that it actually serves a purpose.
Some behaviors common to second-generation Facebook users:
To this group of Facebook users, the service is dull, uneventful, and often unrewarding.
A lesson for the future?
As hard as bloggers like Corvida attempt to bridge the gap between generations, it’s likely that the first-generation crowd will continue to dwindle until it’s dwarfed by this second group. As Facebook loses its connection to real life, users will return to it less and less. This all makes an interesting case study for anyone releasing any sort of web service: who you release your software to first can make an enormous difference. For Facebook, it meant the difference between an integral service for being socially involved online to, well, just another social network.
Tagged as: early adopters, facebook, first-generation, social networking