With 66 different friend-oriented (not just general) Social Networks out there, the typical user usually opts to open a social network account based on what their friends/family are already using. Most people use these types of services to easily keep in touch with people they know, to find old classmates, or for dating. For me, it was the first option. Many of my friends and family had a page of their own years before I started mine, otherwise, why would I?
It’s no secret that widgets of expression are extremely popular among these types of social networks like Bebo. Everyone has something to prove to the world right? On a realiaistic level, more in teenagers or young adults I think, services like Myspace help them get a point across. Are we so obsessed with representing ourselves using colors and quotes that we refer to it as the “art-form of ourselves”? It’s not until you get a chance to “make it your own” – if you will – that people may start to take interest in using a widget. How will this help me express myself and say something cool?
When users showed us how they used the Chitika | Owna on their web & Myspace pages, we noticed one thing in common among the implementations: They were all used and expressed in completely different ways. For example, Sally placed an image of a Prada bag in her sparkling Owna skin and used “TIM PLEASE BUY ME THIS!” as her tag line while George decided to use the DJ skin to showcase his new Sony Notebook. It was something about making it their own that envoked passion. Makes you wonder… if blogs and other social networking tools were popular & used by our parents while growing up, would we see the interest in them today, or shy away because it wasn’t a byproduct of our generation? I can just see it now, “Hang on sweetie I’m just quickly sending out this email to my co-worker on Linkedin, and uploading my pictures to Facebook, then I’ll be ready to take you to soccer practice”. “Um, okay Mom.”