Facebook has a thing for moms.
The last two times I’ve attended a Facebook event – both the unveiling of its redesign and its announcement of Connect on the iPhone – Facebook employees emphasized how excited they were about the fact that their mothers had recently joined the social network. The milestone is a symbolic one, indicating that Facebook is expanding beyond historically internet-savvy generations to include an older user-base, namely folks who use their computers primarily for basic tasks like Email and photography but have largely stayed out of the social-media craze. Yes, there are plenty of older tech-savvy computer users, but this is hardly the norm.
Facebook is clearly trying to bridge this gap, and it’s making significant progress. But it still has a long way to go.
Thing is, I really don’t think Facebook is that user-friendly for people who are trying out social networks for the first time. In fact, with its plethora of granular privacy settings and the somewhat foreign concept of ‘Networks’, Facebook can be downright baffling for new users. I’ve been using the site for years and I still have trouble configuring privacy settings for various photo albums and Friend Lists. The settings are all there, somewhere, they’re just confusing. Homepage redesigns and somewhat frivolous new features aren’t really helping the matter.
Facebook’s default privacy settings aren’t exactly geared towards novices, either. Creating a new photo album lists the default sharing option as “Everyone”. It’s trivial to change, but how many people simply click ‘next’ and share their photos with the world without really meaning to? And new accounts are set by default to share their information with everyone else on their network, which works out to quite a few people if you happen to join a regional network (which Facebook suggests during the signup process).
What Facebook really needs is a ’safe mode’. Something that caters to the the kind of person who may occasionally lend a few thousand dollars to a Nigerian princess, or who sends out chain-letters that originated in 2002 to dozens of friends at time. Many of these people are quite intelligent. They just haven’t grown up with the constant threat of scams and phishers. And they’ve been told so many times not to adjust a program’s settings (for fear of doing something wrong), that they’re afraid to explore the site and figure out the privacy settings for themselves.
A ‘Safe Mode’ could take any number of forms, from a profile with stricter default privacy settings to a Clippy-like virtual helper (hopefully with fewer annoying tendencies than Microsoft Office’s old sidekick). Just something that makes the site a little easier to use for those people who aren’t really sure what they’re doing.
Yes, but how would they pick who gets the “Safe Mode”? Would this be the default? That would bug the tech savvy. Would it ask them if they suck at tech? How about asking if they are old? Not really a way to set this in motion without really ticking some people off.
No, I think it would just be a nice option to have during the signup process (it would not be the default). Could also access it later on through settings.
Facebook’s Privacy Policy is a joke. Who can read through all of the legalese? This is not designed to be privacy friendly, but rather so obscure that people will just ignore it.
Compare that to Yauba’s privacy policy, which is only 9 words long, for heavens sake: http://www.yaub...sttname=privacy
While I agree with your general point on Facebook’s privacy practices, it is not really fair to compare Facebook with Yauba.
Yauba is a search engine that, like most search engines, does not require any sign in … Facebook is a social networking site that does. There is a huge difference there.
Yauba can operate without any cookies, but I don’t see how a service like Facebook ever could.
hello do you want a facebook page to if you do i want one on i was looking up on the compter how to confense your mom to get you a facebook page? i was looking up that so can you help me i really want one because my friends all have one
Hey, I just tried Yauba … that was pretty slick. It seems to be basically Google + Twitter Search + Privacy.
However, I didn’t quite understand the point they make about visiting third part sites. How is this possible to visit third party sites in privacy as well? It’s not as if Yauba controls other sites. Or am I missing something?
another option in the settings that already confuse them, nice idea batman.
Thank you for this article! Facebook doesn’t seem to have any idea how bewildering and horrible their UI is, or how completely insecure their users’ privacy is.
For privacy, you can assume that everything you post on Facebook is effectively in the public domain, regardless of privacy settings. Treat it like a blog. Despite the hype, most people don’t have or want a blog. They want to share with family and friends only – and Facebook is not the tool for that.
For UI, just navigating the site and figuring out what it’s good for is a horrible experience. Try searching for a friend with a common name, then narrowing down the results by what city they live in – you can’t. That’s idiocy at such a basic level it isn’t even worth bringing up the other million issues.
Bueno.com may be the newest entry into the social network scene but it’s got something everyone is talking about – a free USA number and a virtual phone empowering site users to make free calls to their friends as long as they have a microphone and speakers and both parties are members of the BUENO network (which is also free of course).
$isSafeMode = $user->getAge() >= 45;
The growing complexity of facebook is confusing YOUR mom.
Not a bad idea… I think I’d even use the safe mode even if I think I fall into the “knows what he’s doing” category.
Or even if there were 3 predefined privacy/security settings where all the different settings defaulted differently based on “open,” “middle” or “safe mode”… er something, like you say, it wouldn’t take much to make it less confusing.
Facebook is incredibly complex.
Ask your mom where she would expect to see invitations from her new friends? Inbox, right? Well, it’s not there on Facebook, it’s in “Requests”.
For some reason I get event invitations in my inbox, even though I see them in my events notification view.
Did I mention you can’t get to Requests from the navigation bar at the top?
Notifications are shown on the screen twice and even more. There is a way to get to them from chat bar, from the inbox, and inside the Requests portion of the page.
If I want to share a link, I either have to rely on Facebook’s magic behind the scenes and use the status entry box, or click on my own name first and then explicitly choose to share a link.
The point is that the UI provides ways to get things done multiple ways. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is very complex.
Ask your mom to explain “News feed”. Feed is an industry term used by media companies.
FB needs at least one more option. “Hide all messages from applications”. That right away would make it easier for moms to handle. The rest of us would benefit as well.
@Leonid, I told my mom Facebook was full of pedophiles so she wouldn’t try to join and then ask me why the “Facebook” and “Home” links direct to the same page, or why “Profile” and your name link to the same page, or what the difference between was between a “wall” and a “feed.”
That’s hilarious.. and it’s SOOO TRUE !!! How the hell DO you explain these things if they have become part of your subconscious.
It gets to the level of a “why do you get wet when it rains” ..
I fully agree with all the comments.
…..(@Kawika Holbrook) other than telling your mom that Facebook is full of pedophiles! You just gave your mom night after night of grief because you just outed yourself to her as a pedophile….you do use Facebook, right?
The redundant, branched, and multiple lead links are ridiculous! Does everything I click on need to go to the same place, come on people!
In addition to the above gripes, I would like to add that it is frustrating that you can’t share a picture folder with someone. Why should I not be able to share a folder with all the friends/family that I wish to, so that it shows up in a “Shared Folders” area under pictures? Right now, you have to post the folder to the wall – which drops out of view and availability as the wall fills up; tag everyone – which disperses the images from the viewer’s perspective; or download all the images re-upload them to their own folder (which is what some friends resort to in order to share mutual pictures with their friends – which adds redundant images and strains storage and bandwidth. Please let me know if I am missing something.
Also, has anyone figured out how to get to the slider adjustments to control what type of stories are posted to your feed at which frequency without going through help? The setting used to be in the feed, which it promptly disappeared from and now is only available through nebulous searches and clicks in Facebook Help (kind of an oxymoron).
I would like to offer Facebook some praise too though. I think the newest iteration of its UI is a net improvement over the last, although it wasn’t ready for prime time by any means.
For sure…. had my mother put a bunch of personal crap into a wall post… not pretty
I have an aunt that puts questions, directed to me, on her status…
WTF? How dumbed down is dumbed down enough? I’m a mom and I have lots of mom friends (we’re oooooold) on facebook. I’m tired of hearing “somebody’s mom” be synonymous with “dumbass.”
I don’t think that “somebody’s mom” is synonymous with “dumbass” by any means, and I’m pretty sure that’s clear in the post. But there are a lot of older people who simply are not familiar with this sort of site.
If you can’t ride a bike at first it doesn’t make you stupid, you just need to use some training wheels for a while until you get up to speed.
Your mom is shorthand for mainstream.
From an Apple engineer, the term “momable”, meaning something you could teach your mom to do. “Getting them to look at the monitor for the OK button is momable”.
Yeah, whatever, you’re not a mom. No mom says “WTF.”
MILF?
knocked up @ 18, now shes 19…still a mom
When 40-year-old managers talk about Mom, they mean their mom, who’s 65-75, and has typically learned enough computer skills to do email, click a link and read web pages, order from Amazon, and look at photos.
When 20-year-olds talk about Mom, it’s a different story. When 25-year-old moms talk about themselves, well, everything is momable.
A function-based theme would be nice. Something that would eliminate all the clutter and crap.
Facebook is getting way too messy and I can’t stand the endless requests to add new Facebook apps. How many damn birthday calendars do I need?
Facebook better address this complicated design issue before somebody comes out with a drop dead simple social network that integrates Twitter or their going to become yesterday’s MySpace.
if you remove all the clutter of facebook you end up with twitter
google knows that. even facebook knows that. the party is over at facebook.
The new FriendFeed beta is pretty streamlined, while still bringing more innovations to the table. Maybe they’ll fill the gap between Twitter’s lack of features and Facebook’s complexity.
I haven’t got an invitation for an app in about a year… um… you do realize we are in 2009… or did you just unfreeze yourself… I will agree this new design sucks.. I hate the bubble style photos and I use facebook less and less because of the new design… the old wall was much better… this one is annoying..
I like the idea of an easy way to set a Safe mode – actually I think it should probably start that way by default. Better to have made the mistake of sharing your information too narrowly than too widely!
Very valid point. My mom’s been dying to hook up once again with her old high school/college friends and refuses to use FB out of simply not knowing how it works.
I think Facebook Inc benefits from promiscuous privacy settings, because it makes naive social networkers into content generators for facebook.com.
“Safe mode” would reduce the flow of free, user-attention-attracting content, especially if it were on by default.
Definitely.
I am not on facebook so maybe I am the wrong person to make this point, but since nobody else did: When all the mothers on earth are on facebook, doesn’t that mean it’s time to find something else?
Sorry to sound too dumb but I did not get David’s point here.
Point is this: I love my mother, but I don’t think I want to be on a “social network” with her and I imagine I am not the only one who feels that way.
Your point was pretty obvious to me, David.
Yes, facebook was ruined for me when it was opened up and my tech savvy mom joined it.
I facebooked your mom last night.
People that give money to nigerian princesses are NOT smart. Rest of the article is tops though..
Its always funny when someone picks on Nigerians for their scams.
I find it funny
Scamming is the second largest* industry in Nigeria.
*possibly not a true statistic.
That must come right ahead of “russian photo models” scams.
I don’t think picking on Nigerians by making an entire nation synonymous with fraud is funny. Crime and fraud does happen everywhere – Ponzi schemes on Wall Street and similar occurrences in various countries.
Careless remarks that tag an ENTIRE NATION wrongly are uncalled for and should be desisted from.
how about if the invitor was able to invite people in Safe Mode.
that way, FB wouldn’t have to worry about losing too much site activity generated by liberal privacy controls, but newbs (that are most likely invited anway) would get into too much trouble.
I honestly do not think that this concept of a safe mode will ever work, it takes away from the core functionality of Facebook. The key is going to be walled gardens inside of Facebook or outside of (via FB connect) such as http://herhotspot.com – it just makes more sense to do it this way in my opinion.
I’m not certain this is a good thing, and perhaps it’s just me, but I’d prefer to not have my mom in my social network with friends (at least certain friends). Yeah, you could have some grouping privacy controls, but that could get hairy too. I think the more parents get on board, the less time the children will spend on the site, at least the less time I’ve been spending on it :p
I´m launching YourMomsFaceBook.com tomorrow. Moms invited. “Feeds” is replaced with “Properitary Application Syntax for the Dynamic Opt-in Representation of Associated Content Publishers´ Indicated Status Updates”. Do you think I´ll get rich?
First time I used Facebook (old layout), I spent three days trying to figure out the ecosystem behind it…
That’s two days too many…
In fact I noticed something else with the “older generation” they use it to share information and links. So much like a friendfeed idea. If THAT’s what they are doing 90 % of the time, it may be interesting to join friendfeed and limit activity there.
That said, I do HATE the application requests and I see usage actually going down with a lot of them. Also interesting if you check groups: some groups have 10,000nds of members but even for big topics like fashion, or design etc. they are few and far between.
This Mom is bored to death with having to give permissions and choose or skip friends over and over again. I have real stuff to do and a real garden to take care of instead of clicking virtual buttons all afternoon.
If I could just choose and use an application then FB MIGHT be fun. Go for universal settings. Not because Mom’s are easily confused but because Mom’s have better things to worry about than yes, no, or maybe over and over again.
FYI I was raised that a gift is a gift and not a request for same.
@pj_tweets
Holy stereotyping Batman!
Internet-savvy has nothing to do with age or gender. It has everything to do with exposure to technology.
Poor Mom gets to play the role of the older Internet idiot, while serving as a ‘symbolic milestone’ for ‘people who aren’t really sure what they’re doing.’
Saying older tech-savvy users are ‘hardly the norm’ and that there is actually is an ‘internet-savvy generation’ is also weak. Clearly you haven’t read any empirical research on the topic and rather, choose to perpetuate myths.
Your use of “novice” is a much better choice.
Well, I’m off to check my email on AOL and send some money to a Nigerian princess. I sure hope there are some chain letters I can forward to other unintelligent Moms who haven’t grown up with scams and phishers…gee, I hope I don’t do anything wrong like break the internets.
I have to give credence to your point and also agree that novice would possibly be a better term to use. But the generational bias that many can’t see past because of their own ignorance has a valid point that is referenced in the article. It is undenyable that older net users simply did not grow up with living and breathing the internet at the same prevalency as the younger generations.
It is a matter of experience and familiarity that should not be limited to the age of the user. Facebook should, if they were every going to prior to the herd moving on, allow an option that sets defaults based on a slider scale.
I have advocated for group privacy policy settings for a while, which would eliminate a lot of the issues that people are facing as facebook becomes mainstream and broadening its user base.
Simply set default groups as friends, family, co-workers, and aquaintances with different default settings; then add a simply drop down when you get a request.
How about some customizable rules too, i.e., when you add a new picture/video it automatically applies certain settings by default.
Just some thoughts.
This is an issue that Facebook is going to have to tackle ASAP if they are not to get sidelined. I don’t quite understand what they are doing with all the cash they are getting, but quite a bit of it needs to go to an organizational and design team to improve the user experience ASAP ! As in yesterday!
People’s attentionspan in America is that of a knat, and American internet users are still the driving force behind internet developments. Do not ignore the American Internet user, lest it cause your demise.
Deniable.
SOME younger net users simply did not grow up living and breathing the internet with the same prevalence as the older generations.
We all have generational bias. And that is just one among many – gender, geography, ethnicity, socioeconomic, culture, language, etc. Are you sure you’re seeing past yours?
I made the ‘mom’ reference because that’s the example the Facebook guys kept bringing up (as opposed to novices, ‘Dads’, etc.) I’m sorry if you or anyone else felt personally offended by it.
But frankly I’d have a hard time believing that the number of older people (say, ages 55+) using Facebook or MySpace even comes close to the younger generations. Of course this has to do with exposure to technology (and perhaps cultural/personal preference) rather than intelligence.
This study seems to agree with me, but I’m happy to look over any studies that don’t. http://www.read...doing_there.php
I believe Jason is using “your mom” to refer to the mainstream population. When a movie executive says, “How will it play in Peoria”, he does not literally mean how everyone in Peoria, Illinois will view a movie … it is just shorthand for the average person.
I am sure Jason did not intended it as derogatory.
You can find several articles to read on my blog. The last two references in the post are newer research re: debunking the digital native / digital immigrant idea. I write about corporate learning so they are mostly about multi-generational learning (and whether or not you need to design instruction differently). You don’t.
http://brandon-...tclarey/?p=1219
Well, way to phone it in.
Were you TRYING for lots of comments by stereotyping? I’m a 63 year old ‘Mom’ who helps others (most recent a 63 year old ‘Dad’) get to know Facebook. I’m sometimes stunned at how little the ‘digital generation’ knows about how to shape their Facebook use
This is such a typical mom thing to say.
Statement: As a GENERAL rule, older people are less in-touch with technology.
Old person response: WHAT? I’M NOT! THAT STATEMENT IS THEREFORE FALSE.
Protip: Generalizations are meant to be general. Exceptions exist. Get over yourself.
GREATEST
‘YOUR MOM’ JOKE
EVER
Facebook needs to tie their Groups functionality with the Privacy settings …… Really, REALLY urgently!
I, and many other facebook users, want to have the ability to segment friends from co-workers from family from strangers, and from sub-groups within those groups.
Facebook’s survival relies on such a functionality; along with a better way to share and cross reference pictures.
Also, how about allowing exceptions that are not part of your friends list. But then again Group Privacy Policies would negate that requirement.
Bragging about knowing Facebook’s UI really well is like bragging that you know dysfunction because you come from a dysfunctional family.
Well, I’m a mom, (mum in Australia) and I like the post. I joined FB just before the change and so far,
1/ I have tried sending messages privately in many ways, but they all show up on the home page and the profile page.
2/ I started a my family group but it is no where to be found,
3/ I had links before the change that were in the left side area but that has disappeared,
4/ many of the messages I receive from people that show up in my email, I couldn’t find in my home page or profile page,
5/ the stupid quiz thing that says so and so friend says I’m dumb and the pictures of the friends with their score results change everytime I look
6/ if I want to send friends different things like the maybe they call them apps, love and OM’s and easter eggs etc. I have to publish that. I want to do it privatley sometimes. I cannot tell if they were sent if I did not click publish.
7/ I actually created a quiz but it would not let me edit anything after I had written it and even now I have asked FB for help getting it published but it still isn’t. I have to have 20 people play it first but how can they if it isn’t published and I can;t even edit it anyway. It was a complete one whole days worth of work WASTE OF TIME creating it.
8/ and the list goes on. It is a great idea but it is really stupidly set up as far as how the rest of the computer seems to work because it doesn’t make any sense.
whethr you are tech savvy or not, which I am not, FB is not user friendly.
While complicating the system, it will evolve into a useless system. KISS – or just all will move to the new trend.
For Mom, and Dad, Boomers, Seniors – the challenge is much more than privacy issues. The benefit to learning-curve-cost ratio is much too high. Same for twitter.
The college/post college generation have little incentive to get their parents into social networks.
Thus, it’s a huge challenge to win these users into social networks.
I didn’t told my mom about FaceBook, Furthermore I don’t use FaceBook and She actually use it, uhm
Great Points. I have had many discussions with folks who are very confused about the exact issues you address in your post.
1) A Safe Setting is a great idea. And, it would be easy to just describe what “SAFE” means vs custom.
2) Are we starting to see the (small) drawback of opening up app developers? I love many of the apps, and I actually don’t mind the new design / set up of pages.
What I constantly hear is “Where do I go to do…x”, OR “You told me to Y…but I can’t seem to find that”
It’s almost like they don’t have any kind of over-arching development plan. I mean…I NEVER need to get a cupcake from ANYONE.
While they are making a “SAFE” setting why not these options:
1) Thin Client – How about a much simplified version of the interface…one that lets me set up only a couple of things…the things I want.
2) Business Setting – How about an interface that is much the same, but that allows me to strip away much of the silly stuff and just create business related networks?
3) Video Tutorials for Pages, Groups and Causes. How about you show us how to use all this stuff! I mean, if I am at my home page, or my profile page…WHERE exactly do you click to create a Page, or a Group or a Cause?
I really like Facebook. I tell my friends to use it. But, there is stuff they can do better. And I really want them to do that!
Re: Tobin Truog > I agree with you. As with any technology, the tendency is for technology developers to introduce a technology with simple features, and as they add more and more features, the interface and functions get more complicated. The rate of change is probably what’s at issue here: the tech-savvy catch on to the changes faster than those who are less tech-savvy (which has nothing to do with whether they are mothers or not; different people just adapt at different rates to changes). The common take (from a developer’s and technology marketer’s point of view) seems to be that if there are more features, people will be more drawn to use the technology as a whole, which is often at the expense of a more complicated interface. I’m not sure how true that is – that people are more drawn to a feature-laden technology – but I would personally prefer something with a simple interface that lets me choose the minimal of features I want to use. So as you said, more than a Safe mode setting, let’s simplify things for the average user – one who doesn’t understand all the technological jargon like “third party cookies” used in privacy policies and who just want to use the technology as it was initially meant to, without worrying about safety and asking questions like “Where do I find this…?”. I like your suggestions. Technology developers need to begin thinking from the standpoint of the average user.
i always thought FB was a clusterf design. it was so anti-myspace’s “sensory assault” that everyone loved FB’s supposed simplicity, until I had to go looking for invitations for the fifth time in a row.
FB is clean, but not intuitive from a UE perspective.
As per you reference to Nigerians being the most fraudulent folks, click this link for my response.
http://www.yout...h?v=Nf7MifF8-lE
I rest my case
I’d rather they just re-tool the privacy settings than provide a default safe setting. Just make it more user friendly…for everyone.
Interesting how one article can encompass two interesting topics. First, mom’s on FB: to get really interesting view on it, gotta read http://www.gerardmclean.com post.
I completely disagree that FB is not user friendly. Everyone is using the excuse there are users who where trained on Apple II’s and Microsoft WordPerfect, and never got comfortable. FB privacy settings are in plain english as one can get. It’s the the human lack of attention to detail which causes somebody’s 100 pic. of their cat to be sprawled across the web.
Give FB designer’s a break. It is extremely difficult to constantly write code and scripts that function and are user friendly. It’s not cut and past a button time. There is a lot of backend work that goes into it.
Here’s some good old “Duh” advice: If you don’t want the slightest possibility of pic, personal info, emails, etc, being handed to the wrong person , then DON”T SHARE IT. Get a stamp and mail pics w/ a handwritten note instead.
i am a 54 year old MOM and FACEBOOK is NOT confusing me. Neither is Twitter. or any thing else “social media.” Frustrated when things don’t work, yes. Annoyed when I can’t do things quickly or safely. But mostly, really,really insulted when people assume that because your a mother, a woman, or of a certain age, that you missed the technology train. People my age STARTED all this.