Facebook Vs. Bebo

Word on the street lately is that the main difference between Bebo and Facebook is that Bebo is for tacky kids and Facebook is for sophisticated grown-ups. Hmm, I use Bebo. So I’ve since decided to get amongst it and create a Facebook. Does it live up to the hype? Well that’s what I intend to find out. The first bump in the road is that I am having trouble getting onto Facebook at Wintec (even though I should be allowed onto it) so I’ve had to source it via alternative methods. Setting up my Facebook account was rather difficult, although admittedly I am very computer illiterate. When using Facebook I felt as if my every move was being blocked. You had to put in verification codes at every turn, even when simply trying to add a friend. In fact, as a whole, Facebook seemed a lot more security conscious than its other counterparts. You can only view profiles once you are friends, so you have to figure out who somebody is by their name, picture and their friends. If you are concerned about stalkers, then Facebook is the site for you. It’s also very good if you want to find friends quickly and easily. Just type in their full name and a decent list appears for you. So everyone who has 13,201 Bebo friends and 2,369,896 page views, this probably isn’t the site for you. Now I know many Bebo pages look tacky and are so bright and flashy that they cause seizures, I still think its cool that you can customise you page however you like. In an attempt to be classy and sophisticated Facebook has pared back the colour and customisation, but as a result it looks bland and boring. I have come to the conclusion that what Facebook is really trying to avoid is becoming yet another popularity contest social networking site. Facebook is likely to have sat back and watched the demise of sites like Myspace and vowed never to become like that. I think their simple, realistic approach is aimed to be useful and long-lasting. So after road-testing both sites I have decided that if you want to paste up thousands of party pic's, meet lots of ‘new friends’, get comments like “cxc” and “hott” and talk to complete randoms, be able to stalk everyone and in turn have them stalk you, then stick to your Bebo. If you want to stay in touch with overseas friends, catch up with old school mates and still keep your life private from prying eyes, then give Facebook a whirl.