I was intrigued by Ellison et al.’s (2011) distinction between social networking sites (i.e., Facebook) and other computer-mediated communication sites (i.e., online dating sites). Although I never really thought of such sites as similar, it’s true that they both facilitate communication between users. But it’s also true that for the most part, SNS members use the sites to enhance existing, offline relationships rather than create new ones with strangers. In fact, the social norms that have established around Facebook might even consider connecting with people we don’t know to be “creepy”. But the whole point of using online dating sites is to connect with someone you don’t already know offline. After all, if members used such sites to connect with people they already knew, they would probably already be dating, rendering the online dating site useless!

However, this distinction between SNSs and other CMC sites caused me to reflect on what I’ll refer to as “the early days of Facebook”…back when users had to have a .edu account to join. I can remember receiving friend requests from other students at my small, private university who I had never met before. At the time, I accepted their friend requests and we conversed by posting on each others’ walls (because, of course, commenting on wall posts was a feature that was still several years away) until we met in person, usually by chance at some common event. Then, it came time for my first official “I have too many friends on Facebook…I should probably go through my friend list and get rid of some of them” moment, which came sometime after the foundation had started to be laid for the aforementioned social norms surrounding Facebook. Throughout this purging process, I thought to myself, “Wow, I remember becoming Facebook friends with so-and-so, but we never ended up becoming friends offline.” It was, and still is, a strange feeling to watch Facebook norms and etiquette change in such a short period of time. I can only wonder…what do the next five years, one year, even just six months hold for the ever-changing norms surrounding SNSs?

Burke, Kraut, and Marlow (2011) related News Feed content to small talk, which I thought was quite the interesting analogy. Knapp and Vangelisti (2003) argue that small talk is “a proving ground for both new and established relationships”. These points made me consider some of the Facebook friends who I used to be close to but have grown apart from in recent years. I figured we grew apart due to distance, and while that may be true, I realize that often, when I read their broadcasted information on SNSs, our interests are no longer all that similar and we have grown apart in more ways than just distance. While I realize that growing apart from friends as your life progresses is nothing new, it’s interesting how an innovation such as the Facebook News Feed can bring it to your attention. SNS profiles reflect what is important in the lives of users, and as users take on new phases in their lives, the information they share will reflect such changes – and their connections are likely to notice.