The beauty of smaller communities

I keep Facebook because of my family. My wife and her beautiful posts about our son, the daily communication with my mother —who lives miles away— and the chat. Everybody’s on Facebook, and that makes it the perfect instant messenger.

Otherwise, Facebook is a giant wall of spam that you need to scroll ad nauseam fishing for interesting content. I’ve tried everything: lists of interesting friends, hiding people from timeline, etcetera, but they keep changing the rules so you actually get the spammy stuff no matter what, because that’s their business.

IMO, the problem with Facebook is that it is not about real communities anymore. It got so big that everyone’s there: your uncles, your awkward cousins, your whole high school class, and every one of those people you incidentally met in the last event you attended. They all send you friend requests and most of the time it feels really rude to say no.

What we need is smaller communities. Groups of people that resemble more closely our everyday social groups. In small groups, communication tends to be more direct, more enjoyable and there’s practically no spam.

At my office we have a music related chat on Skype. I’m also on a private coding community on Google+, a song-sharing private blog and a movie club. Every one of these communities is way more enjoyable and fulfilling than Facebook or any other open social network, and they’re all under 10 participants.

We now have the tools to craft our online interactions in the way and with the people we want. Don’t let the major social networks ruin your experience.

But keep the Facebook chat. Everyone’s there.