I'd say that most people are not on Facebook to express themselves, they are on Facebook to interact socially. When people are on Facebook, they primarily are looking at other people's information -- not their own profile. With a personal site, you typically spend time customizing it and creating content, not interacting.
This leads to much different design goals. With Facebook's homogenized appearance, it is much easier to keep track of everybody.
I think people interact socially by expressing themselves. We are inherently social creatures and our self-image is shaped by the judgement of others. To improve our own self-image, we try to influence other people's perception of ourselves.
Facebook is great (popular) because people have a blank slate for creating a public persona, then can instantly see feedback from other people reinforcing their created persona.
Right. One of the ways people earn social capital is by exhibiting creativity to peers. danah boyd has written a lot about the kind of identitive performance that social networks enable.
I'd say that most people are not on Facebook to express themselves, they are on Facebook to interact socially. When people are on Facebook, they primarily are looking at other people's information -- not their own profile. With a personal site, you typically spend time customizing it and creating content, not interacting.
This leads to much different design goals. With Facebook's homogenized appearance, it is much easier to keep track of everybody.