Twitter and Facebook are huge in terms of the number of users they have, but is this always a good thing?

Not a week goes by where I'm reminded of the popularity of social networks. Whenever there's a global event happening, you can be sure that there will be lots of updates about it. Not only that but when you turn on the television now every company and brand has a related Facebook page or a Twitter account. Twitter and Facebook are everywhere. It seems that everyone is on one or the other. Well okay, not quite everyone but it's safe to say that most are.

Last night was the opening night of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Aside from the first part of the opening ceremony with the giant dancing Tunnocks teacakes, it went fairly well. Like most big events I wondered if anyone was talking about it on App.net. I fired open my App.net client to check. No one had mentioned it. Not one post. Up until the first hour I don't think there was a single post about it. I breathed a sigh relief.

Why the relief? Well there was no negative comments, bitching or snide remarks. You didn't have to cut through the negativity. In this case you didn't have to cut through anything at all. It was refreshing to not have to filter through people's views, posts, pictures and other stuff.

And that's what I love about App.net. It's a small community of people. Okay it might not have the millions of users that other social networks has but if the people in your timeline are not sharing in the same event as yourself then it's okay. They might just be doing something else that matters to them. It's a nice reminder that despite what happening around your part of the world, there's other things happening around the rest of the world too.

If App.net continues to gain users at a slower rate than other networks then that's okay. As long as it remains profitable and continues to serve it's users I'll keep on calling it my little part of the social internet.