In one of the recent lectures, we discussed a very interesting issue – is there any alternative to Facebook? Many of us agreed that we are concerned about our privacy. Facebook has no qualms about selling our personal data to companies and overloading users with tones of advertisements. However, here comes the problem: if you don’t have a Facebook account, you practically don’t exist. According to Social Media specialists, an alternative to Facebook has just been born. Ello is a ‘simple, beautiful, and ad-free’ social network that aims at people who are tired of having their profiles ‘tracked, recorded and converted into data’.
Ello has been created this year by a group of artists and designers. Initially the platform was only private, however due to a great public interest the website has recently become public. Ello is currently invitation-only. To join Ello, you need to know someone that is already on the network. Alternatively, you can request an invitation by visiting the Ello Home Page. Since Ello does not allow advertisements,users can “choose to pay a very small amount of money” to add a favourite feature to their account on a permanent basis. The profiles itself can be described as a combination of Facebook and Twitter.
In my opinion, even though the interface looks very appealing, the company is not user-friendly. It seems to be problematic to identify certain features and option. However, the founders of Ello claim that the platform is constantely being improved.
To be honest, I am highly concerned about my privacy. Even though, I never use the ‘login-in with Facebook’ option, I clearly have been tracked by numerous companies that attack me with their adverts every day. My first impression of the website was so positive that I immediately requested invitation after looking at one public profile and reading the Manifesto. Unfortunately, it takes a while to create a profile, since the invitation does not come directly.
While I am impatiently waiting for my invitation, I was wondering what you think about the idea? Would you be willing to create a profile on Ello? Do you think it is a good alternative for Facebook users who are concerned about their privacy but still want to be a part of online Social Communities? Does Ello have a chance to become as successul as Facebook?
References:
Kaplan, A. M., and Haenlein, M. 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons 53(1) 59–68
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/11121502/Is-Ello-the-hip-new-Facebook.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/12/facebook-ad-profiles_n_5487372.html
Personally, I am not concerned with the privacy issue on Facebook. There are many privacy settings that are available to protect personal information, such as the ability to select who can view your profile and what type of information you will be willing to share to the public. Furthermore, I am not directly affected by Facebook’s attempt to analyze my information and sell to businesses, as I won’t be told about this and it won’t affect any part of me.
Therefore, in terms of the new alternative Ello, I don’t think I will be willing to create a profile there because I don’t really know the settings in that social networking site. Besides, sending a requests to join the community to an unknown person seems more unsafe to be than Facebook. Plus, one of the main reason I joined Facebook is that many of my friends are on it and so I can connect with them by having an account. However, people that are present on Ello are unknown to me and none of my friends are on it yet, therefore it won’t be useful to me. Hence I do not think that it is a good alternative for Facebook users who are concerned about their privacy. This is because their information will be shown on an unpopular online Social Communities, whom members are unknown to them and if Ello does go popular one day, it will just act in a similar way to Facebook.
On this notion however, I doubt that Ello have a chance to become as successful as Facebook because it appears to be like a “copycat” software. Many users are already familiarized with Facebook and established good social networks through Facebook and therefore are least likely to switch platforms. Furthermore, I came across an article mentioning that Ello has many bugs and have limited functions.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/what-is-ello-social-network-new-good
Overall, I believe that new social networking sites could be successful in the short run because people have the tendency to try new things and are willing to try new sites that have higher levels of privacy. However because of the well established network and rich functions that are available on Facebook, I do think they have formed a good foundation and would not loose its base to new social networking sites like Ello.
To be honest, I am a little concerned about my privacy issues on Facebook because of the attention it got lately. Especiallly the new Messenger app has enhanced my feelings and this made me not wanted to download this app at all. But on the other hand, I am not concerned enough to actually change other privacy settings, as I don’t wanna take the time for it. So it is not likely that I will switch to a whole other platform that resembles to the function of Facebook. However, a new platform did sound interesting for a moment, considering the promises it makes concerning privacy. So I just visited Ello, but it definitely doesn’s attract me at all. It looks more like a blog and there aren’t any more attractive options. So I don’t think other people will take the time and effort to change to something new rather than to stick with Facebook which most people are using. Therefore I don’t think Facebook has to be concerned about competitors like Ello, but I do think they have to improve theirselves to take the concerns away from their users. Because I believe Facebook is now still in the position to PREVENT users from switching at all.