Sticky SNS

Social network sites are sticky because we can spend an unlimited amount of time there and still find plenty to do. We have a natural interest in "stick"-ing around because the content revolves around what we know best--ourselves! It makes us feel important and validated when check out our friends and update our personal content. It allows us to keep up with people from the past that we would probably not otherwise given time constraints.

To make things more interesting, we can also add various applications that also let people know who we are (We're Related, Cities I've Visited, ad infinitum) and other multimedia goodies that get passed around like spam. MySpace lets us blog directly on the site. MySpace also lets anyone view public profiles making stalking "celebrity" pages all kinds of fun.

Personally, I spent a lot of time on Facebook when I set up my account about six months ago. Since then, it has been sporadic at best. I'm glad to know that I have a place where I could get in contact with people if I wanted or needed to. But I find that my younger friends do most of the updating, poking, snowball throwing, setting up false personas to make themselves look more popular, etc.