Social Media Trends: Facebook Credits

Akin to one of Murhpy's Laws, one unofficial social media trend might be that everything that starts out simple becomes much more complicated at an unpredictable rate. Facebook is, of course, the perfect example. What started out to be a digital yearbook for college kids morphed into a worldwide networking scheme to make somebody rich. (Well, why else is there advertising threatening to take over the news feed from every square inch of side bar space now - and there wasn't a couple of years ago?) What started out to be fun little applications and causes designed to (or claiming to) help the rainforest, the environment or animals is now being "Americanized" into the practice of turning a profit.

Remember the good old days when you could rake your own virtual garden for free? Maybe not, they only lasted for the social media equivalent of a week. Either way, the gardening app, similar to the aquarium and farming app, was a way to donate to the good cause of saving the environment - at least that's what the application claimed. For every plant "planted" in your virtual garden, somehow a tree would be saved in the real world. Whether that's legit or not isn't the question. What's happening now is that Facebook isn't really even trying to put up a philanthropic front anymore.

Now, to play your favorite apps (that you're no doubt addicted to by now), you're going to have to use "Facebook Credits." It's the "safe, easy" way to exchange fake money for Facebook's fake goods and services: its applications and games. What was once free still technically is (since the currency is, of course, merely virtual), but if you don't have the credits, you can't do much. Your (fluff)Friends are affected, just like your fish and farms. There are over 50 Facebook apps and games that now incorporate Facebook Credits into their "play." You can even "purchase" "gift cards" for other users.

And, if that's not taking it a bit too far (as if we don't have enough money woes in the real world), this is predicted to blossom into a social media trend. That is, some are saying that Facebook Credits are going to be the virtual credit of the future, and that other social media outlets are going to begin adopting them, or similar ideas. Facebook made an agreement with Zynga, a site dedicated to connecting the world through games, to begin using these credits in nearly all their games; soon, they are expected to be the e-currency of choice across the web.

Bettering business does naturally mean increasing revenue. It also, in this socially-conscious, activist-aware culture mean more than that. Businesses can't (like they and many governments the world over are attempting to do) simply focus on money (thereby cutting out programs that support the poor and needy). Facebook Credits doesn't take it that far, but who's to say the social media equivalent of that isn't the next step?

Photo Credit: Stepchangegroup