FACEBOOK SHARES DROP

It was meant to be the launch party for the social networking boom and thus far, it hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Which doesn’t surprise me, (or anyone else probably) in the least. The fact that Facebook shares have dipped below $29 for the first time since their flotation to a new low is surely directly related to the fact that real demand could easily be confused with smoke and mirrors owing to the extraordinary hype around the deal. “When markets are greedy, you should be fearful” said a senior banker on the deal.

Since then, Facebook’s shares have lost almost a quarter of their value.

“The IPO of FB [Facebook] destroyed the faith of many private investors in social networks,” said chief executive Pavel Durov in a message posted on Twitter.

However, isn’t it just an indication of how nobody has a clue where it is all going? About how much uncertainty there is in the financial market and the banks involvement and generally about which way social media is going? Of course the launch was going to be shaky and I am sure it will continue to be for some time.

Whilst the social networking site has done much to transform the way in which we all communicate and is also transforming the way companies advertise to existing and potential customers people there are still many concerns about its ability to increase profits in the future.

Understandable really. I can’t work it out myself. It is clear that it has become relatively embedded in the hearts and minds of our children. I can’t quite see the 16 – 25 year old bracket being arsed to move anywhere else any time soon – “cba” – but the younger ones? Possibly they might decide that they don’t want to be subliminally advertised to for their entire life – or they might just get used to being in “The Truman Show” as friends suddenly appear wearing rubber gloves and holding up some branded washing up liquid.

Equally, it is so interesting amongst people of my generation – some of them are leaping on the bandwagon and posting pictures of themselves every 10 minutes. One friend of mine in Australia has 100 “likes” plus every time she writes something and gets loads of comments. I have heard that it is women over 50 who are the biggest new band of users.

I have found it massively useful to keep track of my 19 year old son, currently travelling in South East Asia. I can see where he is and look at his photos. I was being very good and sort of creeping around not really leaving messages in case he got embarrassed or it put all his friends off (although he had accepted me as a friend and we were leaving each other messages) but when I came across some inappropriate photos as I was in my dressing gown eating cereal I couldn’t resist suggesting he take them down. All too much.

But all too much for who? “Y – Best 3 days of my life” he said. When our generation go on and on about how employers are looking at Facebook and they should be very very scared – is that really right? Yes, of course it is for us now because of the massive divide, but in a few years? When everybody has embarrassing photos on Facebook and the privacy issue has disappeared altogether thanks to reality TV et al will it really matter? Isn’t this just part of our fast changing world?

I found it very interesting that a lot of my friends were appalled that I was looking at my son’s FB page – “you shouldn’t be stalking him” they said. But I don’t agree with that. Yes, when the kids are younger we should be monitoring and checking to a degree, in just the same way we might phone up another parent to find out what they are up to – but as they get older? Shouldn’t we just be delighted that we get a little more insight into our children’s lives? Are able to look at their online photo albums that we had to spend a fortune getting developed and that are still all in boxes under the bed instead of in albums nobody looks at?

I’m all for it. I just don’t know where it is heading.

But that’s OK because neither does anybody else.