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Passive sharing is the new oversharing on Facebook

This article from Social Media Insider discusses oversharing on Facebook. The article mentions that since the introduction of Timeline in Facebook, advertisers have seen their engagement rates go down. This isn’t just a result of the redesign though, it’s about Facebook “broadening the boundaries of sharing.” There are less posts published by actual humans and more posts showing up automatically from integrated apps. This clogs people’s newsfeeds and ads fall by the wayside.

I wouldn’t even refer to this as oversharing. It’s passive sharing. I’d even go so far as to say it’s pointless sharing. When I think of oversharing, I think of self-pitying status updates that can at least garner schadenfreude. But this information is useless, much like non-alcoholic beer or another Chipmunk movie.

We’ve mentioned on this blog before about the pendulum swinging from oversharing back to dedicated, meaningful sharing (like in Glassboard!). When do we reach the apex? Will the Facebook Timeline eventually consist entirely of mundane updates provided by apps and not actual people?

At this point I’m not sure if I’d rather go back to a streamlined version of Facebook where advertisers have greater visibility, or keep things moving forward with Facebook Timeline. Which would you rather see?

*The reason I was listening to Wham! is because I recently finished reading Ready Player One and someone out there created a Spotify playlist featuring all the songs mentioned in the book.
You know how the song goes, “Wake me up before you go-go! Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!” Hopefully, the song is now in your head. You’re welcome!

Posted by Jenny Blumberg

Posted in facebook - 27 January 2012


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