Although a recent item in the Dutch newspaper Parool states that in many European countries Internet use has still significantly risen over the last year, in Holland it has decreased for the first time: we have 50.000 regular users less! Holland has the highest percentage of Internet users in Europe, presently about 70% of the total population. This is not surprising because the neccessary infrastructure (ADSL or Cable) is available to nearly all households. So, how can this lack of further growth (or even a small decline) of Internet use be explained?
One of the reasons might be that the growth of Web 2.0 social networking sites has stopped, web based socialising is not a hype anymore. The early “try-outers”, now inactive subscribers, left dozens of stale accounts around on sites such as Facebook, Hyves, Last.fm, Second Life and the dating communities. By the way, if you stop using these services, there are small irritations, for example, trying to find opt-out links to stop receiving newsletters and such can be difficult. For a certain group of people, reading and sending e-mail is enough, but regular social surfing turned out to be not that interesting.
However, users who are successfully socialising on the web are also challenged. Try being back from holiday without ever publishing your pictures online, your friends will not accept this anymore. The mere peer pressure of having to share as many aspects of your social life as possible, has become too much of a burden for some. This perceived pressure is part of our western culture in which we don’t “are” anybody, but we have to “become” somebody. We increase our status by building up the modern CV: our social curriculum on the web.
Social networking sites do serve people’s exhibitionistic needs, but everything of fun comes to an end when it becomes obligatory. You may get bored when in real life those other people are not that interesting as you thought, too often it’s all make believe. Many Internetters barely have a life outside of Internet and are therefore proud of the many virtual “friends” they have. Moreover, to fit in, you have to read and comment on other people’s stuff too, that takes even more time, it’s a vicious circle. The growth may stop because people don’t have the will and time anymore to update their adventures; it is just not new and exciting anymore.
Another reason to stop sharing your life is because your personal information can be misused by spammers, future employers, or people that simply don’t like you. We realise that we don’t control our profiles anymore, your data is there stay, … forever! Just do a search on pipl.com, internetaddressbook.com, or dig up your long gone pages using webarchive.org. It’s not so much fun anymore when you always have to be on guard. Many have started to realise that internet is like the real world: it also houses lyers, cheaters, criminals and assholes. But this time, you can’t look them straight in the eye.
All of the above may sound a bit grim, but by presenting it this way, I hope to get some people thinking. I feel it’s time for another interactive communication method. If I only knew what that would be, and how it socially would benefit us, I could be more excited about virtual social networking again. We have the technology, but do we have the imagination to come up with something new that leverages the worldwide information infrastructure? Until then I’ll regularly step out for a breath of fresh air and a drink with my few non-virtual friends.
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