If a Status message falls in a feed, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
Very few status messages are noticed by friends on Facebook. Yet I still like to use it. Why? I guess I just like to imagine people are paying attention to me. Real pseudoscientific research follows.
Last November, only 6 of my “friends” replied to a request in my Status to ping me if they saw it. That’s less that 5% taking the trouble to send an empty message. Before this I had posted a note and two statuses about serious personal issues, including a brain tumor of a friend, and received only message related to that. So, serious statuses rarely deliver serious action, and non-serious statuses may get a look, but not enough attention to warrant a 10 second action.
Important people at Facebook may not realize this, because their statuses are greeted with extreme interest. With the new layout, new looks into the status are provided, but emphasize the status of friends. I can’t see my own status back more than a few days. If my status really is for Me, or for someone who really wants to take the time to understand my life, perhaps the longer term views of a single persons status (including my own) would be more interesting.
Even though I know this, I’ll probably continue to shout out into the dark with my status. It’s a fun waste of time, and I get to feel witty, just to myself.
