Today I see Twitter is talking about Ello.co. It’s got a fun cute name and uses grid layouts and big images. It’s another social network. The creators don’t like Facebook. They don’t like the idea that if you do not pay to use a product then you are the product. I agree with that statement. It’s partly why I’m on a Facebook break. The idea is that Facebook entices you to the platform and then sells your data to advertisers. So what Facebook truly cares about is making the advertisers, the real clients, happy. They don’t really care about us. It just seems like they do. We’re basically cattle sharing status updates. Moo.

So along comes Ello.co to offer us a new space to share stuff and promises not to sell our data. We can in fact pay for things to help fund the service. Great! But just don’t look in your cupboard or you’ll find all those other social networks you played with and got bored of. Path. App.net. Google Plus. 

I loved Path. It had a fresh interface. Beautiful photography by Fiftyfootshadows. It also had, in the early days, a hard limit of 50 friends. The theory was that you don’t need more. I really liked what they tried to do. Of course no-one used it after a week. Back to Facebook. Same for App.net and Google+. 

I’m currently content with Tumblr over Facebook. Although it does feel like my parents have said I can’t go out and play with my friends and all I can do is watch them through the window. I occasionally login for work related reasons, see everyone happy and chatty, and logout with a deflated sigh. “Just chat with your mates.” my heart says. “No! Thats just what Facebook wants. Stay strong man.” my head says. 

It’s a shame to look at this new network with such a negative view. History has taught me well unfortunately. You can’t win against Facebook unless all your friends leave too. 

It’s funny though. Maybe us 30 somethings are just the wrong age? Our parents love Facebook. They like to see what we’re doing and like those things. Its like a constantly updating fridge door. On the flip side the teen generation doesn’t like Facebook. They rebel against posting updates that their parents then like. They need their own space for growth. So they use Snapchat and Tumblr. Snapchat gives you the freedom to do anything knowing it won’t be on the internet for ever and ever. Thats a nice bit of freedom. But us 30 somethings seem to accept Facebook and plod on. When we try and rebel we do so half heartedly. 

It’s all a bit of a shame really.