Links and quotes on social ux design compiled by @david_z
We’ve never had a social graph last >10 years at scale. Facebook looks like the best chance to do this but we already see questions about their brand attractiveness to teens. Each new group of kids come of age wanting a space they can discover together and call their own.
— Trying to be the one true social graph is like trying to hold water in your fist
Teens embracing new services say they’d rather use aliases than their real names. […] On Twitter or Tumblr, they say, they can also be more selective about what they share and with whom, and feel less social pressure to “friend” everyone in their school or friends of friends. Twitter, they say, just feels more private and intimate. They can use pseudonyms or private locked accounts so their tweets stay between friends. […] “Teens need a place to socialize and express themselves without grown-ups staring at them.”
In most of the communities we’ve worked in, teens will “friend” virtually everyone they recognize from school, making Facebook less like a collection of friends and more like a town hall meeting. It’s where young people learn the latest gossip, catch up with their peers, publicly reinforce relationships, and turn acquaintances into friends. […] Mei-Xing, an 18-year-old high-school senior, leaves Facebook open while she studies late into the night because she likes seeing the names of friends pop up in chat windows. Even without talking to them, she feels less lonely knowing they are out there.
