Just began my study with Facebook.

I’m quite  in a “shock” realizing how it is difficult to have my subjects’ friends get heard of the facebook group for this research project. My subjects are supposed to send this group invitation to all of their friends, which amount to hundreds. In addition, they advertise this group in their profile walls, even though they post it only one time, so far. My expection? I thought that at least several percents of their friends would answer to the invitation and join the group.  

My observation for a few days, however, taps into my intutition that this type of mobilization won’t turn out really good….It seems that  few friends are actually persuaded to join the group. What’s worse, they aren’t even heard of the group anyway… even if they visit the Facebook site several times a day. People seem to know how effectively and selectively to expose themselves only to the cues they’re interested in.  This lack of exposure to the invitation message makes me frustrated becuase it shakes the fundamental assumption of my project, which goes like, “Facebook is the place where I can attempt to mobilize resources if I want to do.” Only when this premise is satisfied, I can ask subsequent questions, like, “then, who will be more likekly to be mobilized?” or “what are the condition that make the mobilization more effective?.”  

Hmm. I guess I’m now in trouble. If Facebook is not a place for getting help in a greater scale, what on earth is the distinctive utility of it as a social network site? Is it really nothing more than a place to satisfy our desire of narcissitic self-displays and peeping at others’ life story? Does it how what we call “social network site” is meant to function? I’m confused…