The first person I saw share “My Facebook Movie” was Terry Kawaja, 23 hours ago as I write this short post. I clicked. I smiled.
I shared mine a few minutes later.
Then I looked at those of two friends and stopped.
This morning I saw that my wife had shared hers, so of COURSE I clicked. Then one more from a friend. I stopped. The same cadence. The same music. The same progression. Meh.
Then I saw my friend Bettina’s post: “Here’s my Facebook mov… Nah. Nevermind.” She posted that two hours ago.
Why did this happen? Why did this cute algorithmically powered story jump off a satisfaction cliff so quickly?
If I’m right and my response is typical, then I wonder if Facebook agrees? If their only metric is “who views the movie and shares it” then they are probably happy, as it is popping up like a game of Whack a Mole everywhere.
But a better metric would be: 1. View; 2. Share; 3. Watch other people’s movies. If 3 continues beyond 48 hours, then that would be real success.
Perhaps the biggest problem with “My Facebook Movie” is that it is surprisingly not social. It’s almost Apple-like in it’s egocentricism. Sure, I can comment about my video or another person’s, but it’s not about my relationship with another person I designate, nor is it about my interaction with a coherent group— it’s about my interactions with the universe. Interesting enough when it’s about me, but not when I’m watching a show about somebody else.
Am I just being a sourpuss?
Postscript: I just remembered two interesting articles about how Facebook can make people feel bad about themselves because in general we post about Awesome Life Moments. One was from The Conversation last week, and the other was from The Economist back in August.
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