People always love their comfort zone. It’s evident to you every day if you use the internet; web sites usually use the same basic principles: underlined/different-colored links, an image at the top of the page that links back to the home page, etc. But when a web site makes the links the same color as the rest of the text on the page, how easy is it going to be for you to navigate around? Furthermore, how long are you really going to stay on that site? Things that appeal to the broadest audience are ones that use an already established method; ones that people already know.
Unfortunately, when a bold step is taken to go away from the norm and try to improve these already familiar ways, it can be drowned out and left unnoticed by people’s natural tendency to resist change. I’ll start with a big one, the very basic for anyone who is reading this right now: Web Browsers. Obviously, Internet Explorer would be considered the “norm” here. Many average internet users haven’t even heard the words “Firefox” or “Opera” (and would associate them to browsing the internet). But when you compare the advantages of a “different” browser like Firefox to the likes of Internet Explorer (CNET did just that), it’s a wonder more people aren’t using it.
Next week: Diverting from Myspace ..to Facebook
Thoughts
internet, Software
More and more I’m figuring out what it is that just bugs me about Myspace, and Facebook– the social networking types. And it can’t be explained in a short bare-bones basic explanation, so I’ll put it this way.
I don’t like constantly being obligated to talk to people, or make them feel better. An example: I like my cell phone– it’s an easy way for anyone to reach me, for any reason, at any time. They call and I generally pick up since it’s not, ya know, ringing non-stop. However, if I’m busy, I don’t have to answer. And that’s the beauty of it all. They have those 30 seconds to try and talk to me but once that window is up, they have to continue on with life. Of course, they can keep calling back; not so annoying, because I can always wait for it to stop ringing. They can leave a voicemail; I’ll know why they had to call me, and I can get back to them on my terms (depending on the urgency, mostly).
It’s a whole ‘nother story with these social networking sites. People leave you these proverbial voicemails that you can’t ignore, and that stay with you. Not only that, there’s usually no urgency. It’s to pull up some kind of self-confidence! And automatically there’s an obligation you have once someone decides to leave you one of these pointless messages of the public kind. Because if you don’t do it once, you hear about it afterwards. Maybe they don’t try to do it, but they put some kind of weird, needy obligation on you to comment them back; to leave them some love, to make them feel better. It becomes an unspoken rule when people get like that– and it only takes a little time in the Myspace world to catch the “I need attention”-bug.
Internet
People
