Why has Facebook forsaken Friends?
Many of us have a perverse fascination with love Facebook. I love Facebook and have seen it evolve year after year right beneath my fingertips. It has been a most practical way to stay in the loop with one’s extended social graph outside of family and close friends.
Many features have been enhanced but my recent travels have revealed to me that the most important feature, “Friends”, has not changed much. No idea why this is the case but I will go ahead and point out the pain points I have encountered:
- Keeping tabs on friends. This is quite limited as the feed only shows you updates of friends in the nearest locale, some that comment on your content, and those with whom you chat with constantly. Not sure if this is the most organic way that friendships are maintained, especially for the oldest ones but I hope the feed gets smarter soon.
- Finding out where my friends are. Say I want to travel to Berlin and would like to know which of my friends are currently living there or visiting for a short while so I can meet them or get introduced to their friends there; how do I go about this without filter sorcery or posting an update for all to see?
We live in a truly mobile age. Our main social lubricant, Facebook, ought to keep up. I’m pretty sure there is plenty of other ways people would like to use their Friends section of Facebook to ease their lives. What has been your experience with this? Any suggestions?
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