The Glorious Triumvirate of Social Networking - Week Seven

I was already at a steep advantage in this exercise due to the fact that I have a well-maintained facebook account, and a now-delapidated myspace account. If anyone would like to add me both accounts are under Julian Lee, postpostmodernist@gmail.com. I have also checked out bebo and, in recent times, other social networking sites. Now here is my evaluation.

Before starting at the libraries, my understanding of the demographics of the 'Big Three' were as follows:

Bebo is used solely by tween and early teen-aged kids
Myspace is used by teenagers and Americans
Facebook is used by adults and the rest of the Western World. I was under the impression that Facebook was the most popular choice for New Zealanders.

I was surprised, therefore, to find that the overwhelming majority of South Aucklanders (specifically patrons at Clendon) use bebo. This came as quite a shock to me. This is because I find bebo quite tacky in its layout - too many colours and images. Myspace is less so but I find it quite difficult to use, especially for posting messages on other peoples walls. It is also littered with advertisements. Facebook is quite professional in layout (minimalist design) and the most user-friendly - it is also the network that most of my mates use. Whilst FB does have ads, they are far less intrusive than on the other two sites where they clutter the page up.

I have also just recently signed up to a new social networking site - WAYN.com (Where are you now?) This is for travellers or would-be travellers. I am quite enjoying it because it enables me to keep in contact with people I met on my OE. There are also alot of travel-related features.

For the minute though I will keep using Facebook - it has served me well in the past. The growing number of applications on the site is a concern though - Facebook may soon succumb to a process of 'myspacisation' if it is not checked.