Social Network Fatigue
One of the predictions for 2007 is Social Netwotk Fatigue claiming that users will get tired of social networks, especially actively participating in multiple of them.
Danah Boyd thinks the problem is the large-scale, portal-style social network sites, and the way they implement interaction with friends:
“…the concept of “social network fatigue” boggles my mind. I realize that the prediction is really “Users will tire of large-scale, portal-style social network sites like MySpace and Facebook in 2007″ but the framing of it as “social network fatigue” reveals the inherent problem in this prediction. Users aren’t going to tire of their friends but they will tire of problematic social spaces that make hanging out with friends difficult.”
While Fred Stutzman believes that the big social networks sites will become even bigger:
“Expect to see growth in the premier social network sites. Sites like Facebook, Bebo, Hi5 and Xanga will leverage their existing communities to drive increases in membership in 2007. Put quite simply, people want to be where other people are. To that extent, the networks contained in these sites will serve to draw others in. Of course, Myspace will still continue to growin 2007, but I’d fully expect these A-list-but-not-Myspace SNS to see strong growth across 2007. It seems that the average SNS user can actively use about 2 profiles. Since Myspace has a lock on one of these, the market is fighting for the other.”