For the past weeks or so, I had a morning ritual: to wake from my usually dreamless sleep, to drink my overly caffeine-ated coffee and to check updates on my social networks. Miraculously, that so-called ritual finally ended its streak when I tried to access my Friendster account this morning. I painstakingly had two tries and an almost broken keyboard before I managed to get a full view of my profile, which hadn't changed a bit since the last time I checked. Poor me.
It wasn't about a minute later when I discovered that my account did change after all. Technically, such wasn't limited to my now seemingly stagnant Friendster site. Everyone in fact had it and every Friendster habitue would surely notice that his/her friends' updates box had just gone through a makeover. Yes, Victoria, a makeover -- the one that Oprah arguably invented and the same thing that Tyra arguably tried to emulate in vain.
Tragically, the term "makeover" wasn't that appropriate -- at all. "Overhaul" was more like it. (At least an overhaul would either mean better or worse, depending on which side of the beauty salon or vulcanizing shop you're sitting... or inflating.)
To give you a bigger picture -- just in case 1) you have no Friendster account; 2) you have one but don't log in too much because Friendster is so 2004; or 3) you just don't care -- here's the overhaul: the friends' updates box, which is the second thing you check upon accessing your Friendster account (after your OWN updates), has been divided into 4 brackets, from the "24 hours ago" to the "4 days ago." Quite relieving and more informative, if you'd ask me... BUT... here's the catch: your friends' pictures weren't there! There were just names and the what-have-yous they just did. Good grief.
Personally, the box sort of looked cluttered, like panties scattered on the floor of a museum. The backdrop looked neat but the words -- or letters -- just appeared "shabby" or disorganized though they weren't. (Some of my friends have hearts, wingdings or whatever teenybopper scrapbookish churva associated with their names!) And they just confused you more. Your eyes would get distorted just looking at the small fonts and figuring out who this person who just received a comment or added a photo was.
I, for example, had to freak my brain out just to know who among my friends named MARK had updated his profile. I have 4 friends with MARK as their user names in my account so I had to look further just to discover who among these 4 had ticked his profile though I didn't really care! Haha.
Worse, it would really get complicated if you accessed one's profile just to stupidly find out who was who. If your settings allowed you to know who were those who viewed your profile and their settings were the same, that person would find out you'd been doing some snooping though you weren't really. Sheesh. It used to be so simple but now it isn't. Like d'oh.
Kelly Clarkson had a word for it: beautiful mess. I have one for it, too: messy beautiful or just plain mess.
Poor Friendster. I think the "regression" started when other social networks, like MySpace, Multiply and most recently, Facebook, got into the social networking scene and seized Friendster's moolah. Well, at least in the Philippines... or Naga City. Haha.
Now, Friendster just looks like one granddaddy who had his better days. Its team just couldn't get it quite right recently. With all the hype Facebook is receiving, the Friendster road is getting bulldozed by the minute. Keeping up through the new (and tragic) layout may just be too little, too late -- or too big, too early.
Sadly, I used to be a Friendster supporter (see my past article about Facebook and my initial pissed off moments with it). I still am but no longer that spirited (for the lack of a better adjective). I think the table has turned and Facebook has become my new loitering zone. Must be the applications.
Anyway, it's just an opinion, especially if you're a Friendster die-hard. To be even redundant about it, it's just my PERSONAL opinion. So don't kill me. :)
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