The gathering storm: Time says Facebook faces backlash over inane application requests
- April 17th, 2008
- Read 621 times
- 3 Comments
Charming
It looks like Time mag didn’t get the memo that says nothing negative is to be written about Facebook. Funny (well) thing is, it’s the same thing I complained about nearly a year ago: too many stupid application requests.
Yup, Facebook users, it seems, are fed up with the myriad application requests they get each and every day. A zombie has bitten you, do you want to bite back? Become a fan of Web 19.0! Free [virtual] petrol! Puppies for Tibet! And so on. Yeah, it’s annoying, and partially the reason why I cut my visits from once a day to maybe a few times a week. And yes, I (and Time) know that you can now hide all those dumb requests, but, to me, it’s the principal of the matter. What was once a simple site—when is this paper due, random person from class?—metastasized into something sinister and hardly recognizable.
And of course, the application creators argue the exact opposite. It’s “fun” to get application request every 15 seconds, makes you feel special and well liked. Does it? “It is a positive action that people like sending to their friends,” said the creator of such important breakthroughs as Send Good Karma.
How needy do you have to be to feel validated by Facebook app requests?
I just find it funny that the site was co-opted by the “how do we monetize the friend feed?” crowd.
via Drudge Report
Mark (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Yeah I’m still right there with you on all of it. I get requests about stupid crap all the time…from the same people. You get used to just clicking ‘ignore’ after a while
PS: I’m 21 today! AND I made a Facebook Event about it too, come find me!
SwissFreek (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I got really into Facebook back in the day precisely because it was a simple and useful way to keep in touch with people. Now it’s starting to look more like MySpace, and I’m staying away more and more as time passes.
The first thought I had the day the iPhone SDK was announced was “thank god it’s going to be more than just a ton of stupid Facebook apps.”
Lumberg (Who am I?)
2 months ago
The first thing I did for my profile was turn off notifications for everything. Seriously, nobody cares what books & movies you like. The least I could do was spare my friends all of that inane information. I never added it to my profile in the first place so I guess its a moot point.
They are on the brink of eye gouging disaster with all of these apps though. I hope to God they hold out on letting users create their own HTML templates for their page.