DISQUS

Sarah Edwards · 4 months ago

I think Facebook and Twitter are both great in their own ways, Facebook more for personal communication, and Twitter possibly better for celeb spotting and businesses looking to branch into online marketing and social media. However, I completely agree that it's great news that the two seem to be growing apart, if they had continued to converge, maybe both would have ended up less popular.

Subbu · 4 months ago

I agree completely.

I used to post what I thought was useful links in both my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I found traction in Twitter and not on Facebook.

I think Facebook is like a General Entertainment Channel as opposed to Twitter which I think is more like Discovery. On twitter I choose who I follow after seeing the tweets they send.

Rocque Bowen · 4 months ago

This is a really good post. Now that I see all the comments it looks like most would agree with you. There are getting to be a lot of social sites around and Google is in the game, too, with Friend Feed or Friend Connect, and it will be interesting to see where that leads.
I enjoy the social sites, but find that the amount of time is restricting as to what can be done, and as you can tell by this, it is almost impossible to only use 140 characters.

Meryl Steinberg · 4 months ago

I've definitely slowed up on tweeting. Do it in spurts while I'm reading to share social-political issues I would like to keep alive, but enjoying the friends on Facebook more and more.

Ben Kunz · 4 months ago

I almost agree. Yes, Twitter and Facebook enable very different networks, but if you ask me which group I would want to meet up with in NYC, I'd pick my 20 top Twitter contacts vs. the 20 old friends I know from Facebook. Why? Twitter gives me new things, and Facebook gives me old.

I suggest the distinction is "Facebook is the past" and "Twitter is the future." If you want to connect with current human relationships, Facebook is a modest extension on your friends and family anyway, sort of a glossy version of voicemail. But if you hunger for new ideas and professional networking, Twitter can open doorways much faster.

This is all a function of the network structures. Facebook is slow, cumbersome, cluttered, and fun for posting a menagerie of images at say 3 a day. Twitter is fast, short, disruptive, link-oriented, and built for sharing knowledge and new connections rapidly.

So we agree, almost. Which is why I'm glad I met you on Twitter.

Alan Wolk · 4 months ago

Catching up here:

@Sarah: agreed that if they converged too much, that would have lessened the appeal of both

@Subbu: Good analogy. Twitter tends to have an audience that's more interested in following links to outside sources, whereas FB's audience is more interested in interacting with people on the site.

@Rocque: Interesting twist now that Facebook has bought FriendFeed- curious to see how that plays out

@Meryl: Facebook definitely encourages deeper levels of engagement with friends. I find that with many of the new 30 -50something users, FB is viewed as a very female activity, due to the picture sharing and other features.

@Ben: Facebook is only the past for some users. I see many of the newer users connecting with their current friends, using it as a way to share photos, make lunch plans, etc. Similarly, they have no use for Twitter (yet) because they're not looking to make new connections as much as stay more in touch with existing ones. Which is not to discount how you use both platforms, just that I suspect your experience is less common for Facebook-only users, more common for users of both platforms.