Why is Ecademy aping Facebook?

Ecademy and Facebook: when the grown ups start behaving like the kids

EcadebookRecently, Ecademy seems to have been adding Facebook-like functionality without much consultation with its membership.

These days you no longer need to have a meaningful connection with another Ecademist to add them to your network; you can simply invite them to connect. They click ‘yes’ and you’re connected - as easy as collecting Facebook friends.

The latest move is a ‘what colour’ are you personality profiling application that (if you take the questionnaire) splatters your personal profile with it’s findings, at the same time as advertising the application developer. This is currently being discussed here.

I can’t help thinking there’s a depressing parallel with what’s happening with Ecademy and the Ross / Brand furore currently going on at the BBC. In both cases it seems that the grown-ups feel like the only way to be popular is to behave like the kids.

It’s already happened in education (why I quit 4 years ago). It’s happening in our media and now it’s happening in business networking.

There’s nothing worse than seeing the BBC resorting to using a seedy 47 year old juvenile to appeal to its youth audience.

Ecademy’s greatest asset was its ‘maturity’ - a place where you were spared the ‘lad culture’ of business and could depend on people being - for the most part - grown up.  Please, Ecademy, don’t go the same way as the BBC ;-)

October 31, 2008 | Filed Under feedback 

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