Comments on: The Growing Complexity Of Facebook Is Confusing Your Mom

By: Weekly Links – April 10 | nick gennock photography

Weekly Links – April 10 | nick gennock photography — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:04:43 +0000

[...] Facebook loves your mom [TechCrunch] [...]

By: cairy

cairy — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:28:43 +0000

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

By: Don’t let Facebook confuse or intimidate you, or you’ll miss out | The Publicity Hound's Blog

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:30:25 +0000

[...] know I’m not alone, judging from the gripes from other Facebook users who commented on The Growing Complexity of Facebook is Confusing Your Mom at the Techcrunch blog. And then there’s this popular video on 25 Things to Hate About [...]

By: John

John — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:17:02 +0000

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).

By: French Fury: Parisians Hit The Streets In Protest Against Facebook Redesign | Tech-Framers

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:57:09 +0000

[...] Clearly, they’re not happy with the redesign even if Facebook has already made some changes due to user complaints (against Michael’s advice), or maybe they’re just really pissed because it’s still confusing their mothers. [...]

By: infoyourway.com » French Fury: Parisians Hit The Streets In Protest Against Facebook Redesign

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:22:22 +0000

By: Trade Jim News » French Fury: Parisians Hit The Streets In Protest Against Facebook Redesign

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:06:01 +0000

By: Noirin

Noirin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:11:40 +0000

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.

By: Weekly Links - April 10th | nickgennock.com

Weekly Links - April 10th | nickgennock.com — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:01:01 +0000

[...] Facebook loves your mom [TechCrunch] [...]

By: Let’s Stop Confusing Moms With Technology-Fearing Simpletons

Let’s Stop Confusing Moms With Technology-Fearing Simpletons — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:01:27 +0000

[...] by the flurry of headlines that generally follow the “My mom is on ___” stories, after Mom joins it’s time to make sure the service is simple. How simple? So simple Mom can use [...]

By: Ann M.

Ann M. — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:56:16 +0000

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.

By: Marco

Marco — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:50:04 +0000

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.

By: Scarhawk

Scarhawk — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:39:17 +0000

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.

By: Vicious Headbutt

Vicious Headbutt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:31:57 +0000

I’d rather they just re-tool the privacy settings than provide a default safe setting. Just make it more user friendly…for everyone.

By: virtual world for kids

virtual world for kids — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:49:13 +0000

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.

By: olatunji

olatunji — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:08:09 +0000

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

By: Who Has The Most Photos Of Them All? Hint: It Is Not Facebook

Who Has The Most Photos Of Them All? Hint: It Is Not Facebook — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:50:57 +0000

[...] strengths, which make sit attractive to its core demographic of families and moms (an area where Facebook is still struggling). Picasa is probably up there somewhere, but Google won’t get any more specific than [...]

By: Andy H

Andy H — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:00:10 +0000

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”.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:22:54 +0000

Yes, facebook was ruined for me when it was opened up and my tech savvy mom joined it.

By: some dummy

some dummy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:08:56 +0000

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.

By: Tobin Truog

Tobin Truog — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:43:06 +0000

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!

By: Good Nigerian!

Good Nigerian! — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:37:24 +0000

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.

By: WhoisBucket

WhoisBucket — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:23:05 +0000

I didn’t told my mom about FaceBook, Furthermore I don’t use FaceBook and She actually use it, uhm

By: Janet Clarey

Janet Clarey — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:55:37 +0000

Well, way to phone it in.

By: Janet Clarey

Janet Clarey — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:54:31 +0000

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?