Facebook

So just after putting my boys to bed, I went into my office and found that I hadn't shut down my work computer (oops, I guess I still didn't), and I flipped over (sorry, tabbed over) to Facebook and checked it out for a few minutes. Then I had to head upstairs to the kids, who I probably wouldn't have heard had I not gone into my office (not that they would have gotten themselves to sleep, but I can dream, can't I?).

As I finally headed down to the basement thirty minutes later, I started thinking about Facebook, and how great a boon it has been for being social for my stay-at-home lifestyle. I really feel like I'm pretty social despite not going out past eight most nights. I know, that probably sounds pretty depressing, but really, with December fast approaching, I'll have plenty of social outings coming up.

But as I was saying, I tend to be pretty good about staying off of Facebook during the day - or at least, not playing hour after hour of games on there, but rather just reading people's status updates to know what people are up to. It's a nice break, because unlike when I was working in an office and would take a break by talking to only my coworkers (not that I am at all dissing any of my coworkers), now that I'm working from home, I don't really have that option but find that I can socialize with my friends around the world, and am not restricted by geography.

Okay, this is totally sounding like an ad for Facebook, and as I think back, I know that I did stay in touch with many of my far-off friends through email. But this really is better.

So anyhow, I started thinking what a wonderful thing this would have been for me before I started working. I mean, if I was able to be this connected with the world before I went back to work, would I have ever gone back to work? But then I remembered Friendster. I was connected to the world back then. But somehow, I wasn't as hooked on Friendster.

Someone was talking recently about whether Facebook will last or not. I mean, it's really got to be a generational thing, and the popularity of Facebook will fade over time, or, at least, it won't grow exponentially. I mean, how many people want to be in the same social network as their parents? I suppose you could be really cool and well adjusted and you wouldn't mind, but is that the exception or the norm? Wouldn't, by default, the trend be to have the next generation find an alternate site - one that their parents just don't understand or even want to understand - and join that instead?

Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - there's no limit to the number of these sites that could be created to connect people. But as my kids get older, Facebook will be passe, old news, archaic. The key now is not to compete by creating another similar site, but to come up with the next idea. And sadly, I have no idea what that will be.