A recent Businessweek article states that social networks like MySpace and Facebook are seeing users spend less time on their sites due to the increase in advertising on those social networks:

The MySpace generation may be getting annoyed with ads and a bit bored with profile pages. The average amount of time each user spends on social networking sites has fallen by 14% over the last four months, according to market researcher ComScore. MySpace, the largest social network, has slipped from a peak of 72 million users in October to 68.9 million in December, ComScore says. The total number of people on such sites is still increasing at an 11.5% rate, but that’s down sharply from past growth rates. “What you have with social networks is the most overhyped scenario in online advertising,” says Tim Vanderhook, CEO of Specific Media, which places ads for customers on a variety of Web sites.

We’ve already reported that advertising for social networks (and nice networks like sports) are increasing at a rapid pace every year. The Businessweek article repeats those numbers, stating an increase of advertising in 2007 from the previous year at 155%, to $1.2 billion, according to eMarketer. That number is expected to hit $2.1 billion in 2008.

What might the divergence in time spent on social networks and more advertising mean? According to at least one blogger, it might result in the reduction of interest in sports networks and prove to be a boon for sports bloggers. Here is that blogger’s take on sports networks:

I think there’s an opportunity out there for sports blogs to create their own communities of readers. Even better, the sports community leaders like http://www.espn.com and faniq.com imitate many facebook and myspace features. Why better? The article above leads me to believe they may be heading in the wrong direction, and thus sports blogs can still beat these market leaders at their own game. The problem is not only that ads are too pervasive on social networking sites. It’s that profile pages are repetitive, boring, and still rather rudimentary, and that it’s hard to find creative people and interesting content without excellent searching skills. Also, social networking sites fear giving ordinary users too much power, with the slight exception of Youtube. (The Youtube partnering system is intriguing and worth another bloggolalia post in the future). In my opinion, the way most sports blogs are set up solve many of the problems listed above while still providing a community-driven experience.

I think he has a point, in that the pages for MySpace and Facebook are getting too out of control. If advertising is well-placed and does not detract from the experience, I believe sports networks have their place in connecting sports fans, providing them with an outlet, and allowing users to interact with one another better than a blog can. Blogs are an important and necessary tool of opinion and response, but is bolstered when a part of an interactive community. Different people communicate and take in information differently, and it’s helpful to have more choices to allow for a fuller, richer interactive sports experience. Well, that’s my take anyway.