Facebook the New Twitter? Nawwwww

There was a presentation last week in class on the infrastructure behind social media. I found this article rather suiting as it indirectly focused on the infrastructures behind Twitter and Facebook. As many of you have noticed, Facebook made some changes to their home page. These changes aren’t just visual - much has to do with their function. These changes are,

“meant to change how Facebook users share and follow information, creating a new home page that will show users what their networks have been up to and make those exchanges more current -- news-feeds will now update in near real time, vs. every 10 minutes.”

Wow. Talk about trying to mimic Twitter. As it turns out, this exactly what they’re trying to do, and no wonder, since news about Twitter has been abuzz lately.

“The moves are a "concerted response to the rise of Twitter as a real-time message broadcasting system that goes beyond members' personal circle of friends," wrote Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch. "Facebook doesn't want Twitter to become the way large companies and public figures connect to fans."”

So the question is:

Will it work?

Firstly, I think anything that Facebook changes to real-time will be of benefit to them. The internet has always been about immediacy, and just as the universe will always expand, the net will get faster and faster. Social media has followed a similar pattern. If one accepts this claim then it follows that what Facebook did was adhere to a most basic function of the internet.

Although Facebook has made their site more functional by coming close to capturing the purpose of Twitter, I don’t think it will do significant harm to Twitter. The Infrastructure of Twitter is built upon a very simple notion - sharing what you’re doing with others. A result of this sharing of activity comes the sharing of self with others. Facebook, on the other hand, is firstly about sharing yourself - what you’re doing comes as a result of this. If Facebook aims to capture Twitter’s audience then I think they might be jeopardizing the focus of their site.

For example, Facebook is centralized on the internet, while Twitter expands over other mediums. Although Facebook allows people access from smart phones, Twitter can work on even the most basic phones, as its all about the 140 line question "what are you doing." Because of this, Twitter never needs to be compressed. Facebook always loses value as it shrinks to smaller mediums.

What do you think?