If you want to socialize with Chris Heritage,you won’t find him on Facebook. The 27-year-old Port St. Lucie (Fla.) business analyst joined the social network last year after his buddies bugged him to get an account. But he soon became fed up with the avalanche of ads,especially those detailing what his friends were buying,and he quit the site in November. Now,Heritage expresses himself through a blog,happy to pay $6 a month to publish on a promo-free Web site. “It’s worth it to not have to look at the ads,”he says.
Uh-oh. Social networking was supposed to be the Next Big Thing on the Internet. MySpace,Facebook,and other sites have been attracting millions of new users,building sprawling sites that companies are banking on to trigger an online advertising boom. Trouble is,the boom isn’t booming anymore. Like Heritage,many people are spending less time on social networking sites or signing off altogether.
The MySpace generation may be getting annoyed with ads and a bit bored with profile pages. The average amount of time each user spends on social networking sites has fallen by 14% over the last four months.
Read all the article by Spencer E. Ante and Catherine Holahan on Business Week
