The difference between Facebook and Twitter – addictiveness

There has been much talk over the past few days about how different social media Web sites, Facebook and Twitter in particular, are edging ever closer and converging with each other. And while that may be the case to a certain extent, they differ on one key issue: addictiveness.

At the end of last week, Facebook opened up some key features of the site to developers. By freeing up its application programming interfaces (APIs) just a tad, it means outside forces can develop and imagine new ways of using Facebook’s user features.


One of these features is the status updates. You know, the section of Facebook where you are asked to fill your friends in on what you are doing, or what is happening in your life. With the opening up of its APIs, these status updates can emigrate outwards to the rest of the social Web.


This has lead to comparisons being made to Twitter, the micro-blogging service which builds its whole appeal on similar (but inherently different) status updates. Clearly, there is some crossover between Facebook and Twitter, and that just goes to show how appealing it is to issue short blog-like posts updating your online friends instantly.


While some convergence of features does seem to be taking place, there are some key differences between Facebook and Twitter. As VentureBeat rightly points out, Facebook and Twitter updates are used in entirely different ways. Twitter is much more conversational and filled with observations on the world. While Facebook status updates tend to stick to a formulaic “I am doing this,” or “I have done this.”



But for me there’s a bigger differentiator between the two social media sites, and that is addictiveness. I usually log in to Facebook two or three times a day. I check to see what my friends have been doing (usually nothing of note), maybe take a quiz, maybe look at a new photo or two, and then log out. There is very little interactivity or involvement, and no conversation to speak of.


Whereas Twitter gets my attention maybe five times a day, and once logged in, I’m much more interested. I’ll do the obvious of updating my status with what I’m up to, but then I’ll scroll for ages reading everyone’s conversation streams and responding where necessary. An hour can go by and I’m still on the site, conversing, reading, and interacting.


It’s this addictive quality that, for me at least, gives Twitter the edge in this field. Facebook is more of an all-encompassing social network, but for day-to-day usage, Twitter takes some beating. Which just shows how specializing at one aspect of a service and doing it well is sometimes more sensible than throwing the kitchen sink into the mix and seeing what sticks.