By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-04-20 18:20:20 | Word Count: 664
Something is happening with social networks that doesn’t look too promising. It appears that as of late social networks have begin to hit a sort of plateau. In the grand scheme of things it seems that those who would join social networks have joined already and there is no new wave on people looking to sign on. When first reading this I was surprised. Social networks leveling off, how could this be? I thought. But then I realized something, this makes perfect sense. Just think about it. Take your own social network “family” for instance. Those who are active within your network have been there for a while give or take a new friend/follower here and there but for the most part your numbers are likely remaining the same.
Take a step outside of your networking circle and assess the people around you. You remember those friends and family members who swore off Facebook from the beginning, they likely still have not joined the network and many of them have no desire to do so. That market’s tapped. Now consider those who have yet to join Twitter. Same deal, I’m sure. It appears that there was a strong rush in and then a sudden stop. You and I were likely participants in the rush but now where are the others?
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I’m just taking a stab in the dark here but maybe the addition of so many niche social networks to the market have caused numbers to sort of pan out and spread across the board. I mean if you think about there are networks to cater to every group of people you can imagine. There are networks for women and networks for men, networks for those over 65 and others for teeny-boopers, the rich even have their way of socializing on the net and the uber-intelligent have there’s. With all of the niches, everyone is divided up and spread out.
According to helpful research offered by social media agency, Ignite Social Media, the current state of social networks shows that we have hit what appears to be a saturation point. From 2004 to about 2009 social network new members were on a consistent rise. Then things just stopped. No explanation, no really social network changes that would cause a demise, there was just a stop. Not only is there a stop, there is also what appears to be a slight (very slight) decline in 2011. I wonder what or who is to blame for this.
If I were to take another stab at it my first guess would be plain ol’ boredom. People may quite simply be over it. That doesn’t seem too hard to believe. I just think in terms of myself, Twitter and Facebook are my networks of choice, there are many days when I’ve just had enough. We’ve connected, we’re all caught up and then I need more. Maybe we all are just getting to the point where a little more is needed and another network simply won’t suufice. This would be the perfect time for the next big thing, in my opinion. People grew bored with Atari, in came Nintendo. People growing bored with social networks, in comes _________. I’ll be standing by.
