Social Networking Stickiosity

I think social networking sites like facebook and MySpace are sticky for 3 main reasons:

1) Voyeurism. Look no further than the Nielsen ratings on reality tv shows (using "reality" loosely) and you will see that we love to watch other people. We like to know what's going on with strangers, so how much more fun is it to "spy" on people you know?? The best part is, you're under no obligation to interact. Even if people have strict privacy settings (like me), you can usually see their picture. You can spend hours scouting out profiles!!

2) Fun. There are so many fun things to do on these sites, and they are all just a click away. On facebook, when I'm not posting on people's walls or joining new groups, I play Scavenger Hunt, I take movie quizzes, and I (meanly) superpoke my brother. I also keep in touch with my HUGE extended family, including my Minnesota cousins and my siblings in MA, GA, and IL. On MySpace, once I got my page set up, I found my non-facebooking brother. I also found out that lots of bands, movies, authors, etc. have pages. MySpace has a lot of video and audio content, which is great, and I took the "What Kind of Mixed Drink Are You?" quiz to discover I'm a gin and tonic.

3) Easy. Anyone can use these programs. I would argue that MySpace is more frustrating to set up than facebook and requires more technical know-how, but that might just be me. Within their frameworks, social networking sites provide access to lots of programs and social software tools that users can explore with one click of a mouse.