Facebook

I found an article from Time Magazine Online (from 2007) about how Facebook is the future of the internet. The general idea of the article was about how Facebook was in a sense, another net within the internet; everything that the internet is not. Anonymity has been a large portion of internet interactions between people. Since Facebook has taken on a set-in-stone factual nature (for the most part), people feel more invested in it and upload all the possible information about themselves, that they feel comfortable sharing including their age, sexual orientation, relationship status and even their current location. Keeping up with a personal image can even become a large portion of some people's time.

With social networks and blogs now being the 4th most popular kind of online activity, 67% of the world online population is visiting these sites. Social media sites are growing at three times the speed of the internet. According to Neilson online, social media sites are checked more often than email and if Facebook were its own country, it would be the fifth largest (based on population) in the world.

Facebook to me has been more of a way to network for things to do rather than a social "this is what i'm/we're/they're doing" kind of site. My news feed is almost entirely from companies and websites rather than the people on my friendslist. I don't feel like it is a substitute for face to face interaction and i don't feel like it ever should be.