Unnecessary Thought 04: Myopia

I think almost everyone knows the existence of social networking site in our life, that i think has revolutionized the way we communicate with our acquaintances. If im not mistaken, Friendster is the 1st site that has created this trend, where its first vision is to help people find their old friends or classmates. Equipped with a simple interface for ease of use and not to scare away potential members, Friendster stride with a big success among other social networking site like Hi5 and Myspace. Later on, Myspace suddenly become a huge success and and now, it's Facebook and Twitters' turn while Friendster seems to lose it's fan base already. Why? Why cant Friendster keep it's own fans, and seemingly Myspace is facing the same problem now.

Answer: They became myopic, where they were so accustomed to their own success that they forgot to keep evolving, to keep the interest on them.

During the first few years, Myspace can hardly get Friendster users to sign up even though it holds an advantage over Friendster, which is customized layout. The reason is because not everyone is good in programming, so there are hardly any people that utilized that function. That is, until someone created layout generator, where users can just pick specific color and pictures and voila! they got their own customized layout and if they are good enough, they can even have a full Flash layout. Soon after that, thousands started joining Myspace, and Friendster started losing its users. It took Friendster quite some time to realize the advantage that Myspace holds, and when Frienster started having its own custom layout, potential users have their eyes on Myspace already and old users that flocked to Mypace didn't really feel like going back.. Friendster layout customization tool also pose another problem where it was too rigid compared to Myspace. (I think they were trying to keep the ease-of-use features)

Myspace enjoyed its golden time for a couple of years, with almost no changes made to their site, until Facebook came out of nowhere with its apps to entice users (but also filled with bugs). Unlike Friendster, Myspace responded early by adding its own app as well, and Facebook also has another problem, the interface seems alien to many people. Only enthusiast joined in at first, but then they discovered the biggest advantage that Facebook has..commnicating with friends much easier than any other social networking site. With this thing unraveled. Facebook started gaining popularity and Myspace suddenly look bleak even with its custom layout and apps.

Now, Friendster have a new look and feel to it, like a newborn baby while Myspace added some stuffs that is also featured in Facebook. Somehow, i felt like both wont recover from this state and will always be overshadowed by Facebook.

The reason i wrote this post? Hurm imagine this is a human to human relationship, you guys will see one of the main reason why many relationship failed. And yeah, once your girl/boy have their gaze on someone else, it is almost too late for you to change. Do not be myopic. Even when you are married to someone.