The Evolution of an Egocentric Social Network in Facebook Fan Pages

Fan pages are provided to facebook users for getting people with common interests to mingle
with each other. It may be for a famous person, a local business, products of all sorts, and the undying
“one-liner fan pages”. One liner fan pages promote (usually) smart and/or funny one liners that appeal
to people who can relate to them. Some are constantly related to their topic like fan pages Lahat ng
Bagay ay Parang Pag-Ibig and Tigas na Emo TNE. From this, it has been apparent how the original
purpose of fan pages has strayed off a little bit. Most of us shuddered (including me). To be a part of it
was actually amusing. From quotes to jokes, a lot of the internet’s modern influx of information has
been passed through fan page mediums in facebook.

It wasn’t long until fan pages, with the freedom given to administrators (a.k.a. admins, people
who created and/or are in charge of the fan page) and members to post anything they are capable of
posting (or usually, within the limits of the rules sanctioned by administrators), have slowly strode away
from merely tackling things related to their focal subject. This is at times, healthy for the community of
the fan page, i.e. discourse on current events. This way, the page becomes relevant and it is relieved
from stagnancy that usually happens with some fan pages which stay at the course of their focal subject.
An example would be the Labeling Sucks fan page on facebook; note the posts and the responses from
people. Facebook users’ tendency is to easily get bored at things that are repeating, monotonous, and
serious. Being relevant creates a living entity out of the fan pages; a continuously growing flow of
information that is shared between the collection of admins as one fan page administration and the
members. Once again, fan pages have taken a step farther from what they are made for. This is not a
crime, of course. Better yet, this is an evolution to adapt to the wants of a facebook user.

However, there are fan pages have still continued to deviate farther from what fan pages are
for. Such fan pages are transformed, in yet another evolution, into a social network. A social network is a
web of interrelated individuals that have a common interest. You may argue that a fan page was a social
network from the start, but in these type of pages, the fan page neither has fans that follow any entity
worth having fans for, nor is it a page that entertains the common interest. The common interest in
these pages are fronts to invite people in, but once members are on board, what welcomes them is a
monopolized feed from the people in charge, the admins.

Problems arise from these; especially from posts from admins and their relationships with
members. When admins post, they are of course, initially biased as whoever does. This is somehow
trouble for people who do not agree with their opinions. People may comment and argue, and admins,
being the people in power in the page, have any right to deem opinions of other as negative in their own
will. This may not be evident for most pages, but for some, especially with admins who easily get
infuriated with certain members with behaviours, clashes may happen. Trolls (people who post
nonsensical unrelated posts), flaming posters (people who intentionally spark dispute in certain topics),
and people who merely disagree with some things are part (and always will be a part) of fan page
members. It is, for me, a requirement for an admin to tolerate them as long as they are in the right
grounds. (In my experiment, however, they have been kind enough to stick with my endless rants for
weeks.)
 Posts have also deteriorated from there. Ambiguity of a Fan Page’s identity increases. Ranging
from funny pictures to personal admin rants, posts in such fan pages have become a vague feed of
“interesting” based on the preferences of the admins. Content slowly degrades too, as ideas of what to
post slowly come to a decline. From the honeymoon effect of 100 Likes for a single funny post, a fan
page like such who have been on for more than 5 months may notice a decline to a mere 10 or below
likes even in a post much funnier than the first. This is still not to mention the effect of over-posting
a.k.a. flooding (more than 5 posts per hour, happens with a fan page with a lot of admins) which makes
the members tired, overburdened or stale off a fan page’s posts.

Another problem(for me) that I noticed is the “littering” of news feeds on unnecessary personal
issues, thoughts, etc. of page admins. Again, there’s nothing totally wrong with this, until there is excess
of it. We should all be aware that every letter we type and post takes up internet space. Also, there are
things better kept from the public. I need not elaborate such here because the “unnecessary” may be
relative to readers. I, for example, wouldn’t want to know about the failed relationship or exam of a
page admin, but some may, so I don’t conclude anything about this.

Fan signs, which are rampant in such pages, are also puzzling for me. I have asked a couple of
times what those are for and I didn’t get a proper answer. Maybe it is self-gratification to receive fan
signs from people who are considerably good looking. Maybe it boosts one’s self esteem to have a
collection of fan signs. One question that we can pose against these notions is that; are they actually
your fans? Are you any special than everyone else a person has made fan signs for? Do people give you
fan signs because you’re going to give them fan signs, not because they actually want to do so?

Page admins may also post their facebook accounts, sometimes, with a distinguished a public
account from a personal account. They add everyone who pops up on their friend requests list on public
accounts; once again, differentiating the concept of friendship on real life and facebook. We may ask;
Are they really your friends? If not, they may be your fans. Then again, a person may add only for the
sake of collecting friends. It has been evident that people with a lot of friends are famous. That thought
ought to be reformed in the face of “facebook users’ add everyone frenzy”.

Theoretically, the lack of an “entity to be a fan of” makes the admins the “famous people”. This
may be the underlying reason for making such fan pages. Bottomline is, fan pages have evolved from
maintaining a common interest to having no care for a fan page’s common interest and more attention
to the biases and opinions of the appointed admins. It has shifted from a democratic and healthy
discourse of related topics to an egocentric social network governed by a few privileged enough to post
for anyone to see and ban whoever detests them. I would like to argue about freedom of speech, but I
think this elaboration of the problems of a self-centered fan page is more than enough, even if I didn’t
include everything.