Lets look at Facebook's biggest social networking competitors, Twitter and Instagram. Twitter allows you to update your friends, also known as followers, your whereabouts, what you're doing, random thoughts, etc., in just 140 characters or less. Twitter also has a Trending Topics area where the most talked about topics are displayed and can be viewed. Along with the Trending Topics, hashtags are used, for example #ThrowbackThursday, or for TV shows, and surveys. Those features are good for keeping up with current events, entertainment news, and just for fun and pure entertainment. Twitter consists of other features such as: favoriting a tweet, which is similar to liking on Facebook, and retweeting, which is like getting a favorite but better because that means they were thinking what you were thinking. Twitter can be complicated to understand once you start to use it but, once you get use to it can be equally as addictive as Facebook, giving it the capability of taking Facebook's place as number one.
Now there's also Instagram, whose popularity took off immediately, getting over one million users in its debut year, in 2010. Instagram is simply Twitter but focuses more on the use of pictures. Hashtags are equally as popular on Instagram as it is on Twitter, the most popular probably being #NoFilter. A filter is an effect that Instagram users can apply to their photos to make it look better and standout. And as of summer 2013 you can now upload videos to Instagram, no longer than 15 seconds. Another similarity to Twitter, you also have followers on Instagram and follow other people. Unlike Twitter however, you have the ability to like photos, just like Facebook. For some people who enjoy photography, whether it's just pictures of themselves or have a knack for it, this has what it takes to maybe top Tumblr, but not Twitter or Facebook.
For all of its existence, Facebook would has been doing everything in its power in to stay number one, and to make sure its users keep coming back. Facebook lets you create statuses, post videos, pictures, and comments on friends statuses and posts, you can play games, create groups, keep up with events and birthdays, and so much more. You can even display your posts from Twitter and Instagram and post on your Facebook wall. You can link your Facebook with almost every account you have on any site. It's things like that that keeps Facebook as number one but, I still foresee the day that Facebook is thing of the past and all forgotten about. It may not be anytime soon but, when that day comes, who's next? Who will be ready to take Facebook's spot and be number one? Ponder on that.
Until next time.
Facebook will certainly go out eventually, and it is hard to say what will follow it. It could be Twitter or Instagram, or it could be some social media website that doesn't even exist yet. It's done a good job of withstanding threats like those so far, but it can't last forever.
ReplyDeleteI think for Facebook to be tossed to the side, another website almost exactly like it will have to surface. MySpace was abandoned because Facebook offered the same general features with an easier to use format. As it stands, Facebook is a social media site that combines blogging, Twitter and Instagram. In addition, groups or messages can be created that are very easy to use. So, if someone thinks of an idea to better this format, Facebook could very possibly go out of style. This will probably happen, but it is hard to imagine another medium being used.
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