Face(book) Time
As we move into the Review of the Year season, I just found this screengrab from my InBox of 2nd July which I remember marking the sense that a phenomenon was really happening at Facebook:
And this cartoon [courtesy of Royston Robertson at Private Eve] marks another real phenomenon of Web 2.0 in 2007:
A pretty interesting year in the interactive world – here’s looking forward to an equally colourful 2008…
Simple Pleasures part 4 
I must confess I don’t know whether to be very depressed or thrilled about that. Probably both.
I have since lost faith in the Facebook phenomenon, and am beginning to wonder when we’re all going to turn our backs on the digital universe and fall back into a bucolic ideal, growing carrots and herding goats.
Or maybe not…
I have deactivated my Facebook account though 🙂
http://www.mypipeline.co.uk/blog/2007/10/10/goodbye-to-the-book-of-our-ages/
A bold move, Pipes. Those quivers you have of doubt about Facebook and the like are very real and worth considering. Last time I was in Ireland, in the summer, I went to a music session in my friend Bernard’s place in County Leitrim. Patmo showed up to play guitar, after not having played with Bernard for a fair old while (there was a lot of emotion in the air). Anne took out her old accordian with the fabulous ruby pearl surfaces. Patsy lit up a doober. Some other folk I hadn’t met before pulled by from Sligo. I stayed up most of the night, got a lift home from Patsy, we gave some drunk young hitchikers a ride up the road to Mullaghmore to save them the long walk home, I tried not to wake my kids coming in. In other words, it was the opposite of Facebook.
Yes, see – that’s exactly what I’m talking about…you can’t stay up till the wee hours drinking real ale with your Facebook aquaintances. Or, if you do, you need to get out – a lot more.
My thoughts captured perfectly.
But, PPs, you have to recognise that Facebook ‘Friends’ are a different kind of friend – that’s the starting point – not an Instead Of but an As Well As
I get the ‘as well as’ point entirely. And there are many other ‘as well as’ too.
But the reality is that for many, Facebook is an ‘instead of’. And that is depressing. I am sure many under 25’s use it purely to size up prospective ‘partners’. I would say too that having vast numbers of ‘friends’ probably says something – although I am not sure what.
It reminded me of the oft stated observation that the internet would be five years behind where it is now were it not for pornography.
What we think people use the internet for, and what they actually use the internet for may be two very different things – have a look at the top 30 google searches (when Google aren’t censoring the list). Britney ‘crotch shots’ etc.
Off your point a bit I admit, but a point I wanted to make. Nothwithstanding all of that the internet is the most important invention of my lifetime in my view. But there is a mass of accumulated rubbish on it. I wonder if Facebook in five years may be part of the pile.
BTW – I think facebook, myspace etc, are extrememly transitory. I am much more interested in secondlife, multi-verse, UNI-verse and the thirty or so other virtual worlds. This is where the excitement resides for me. Many observers believe that over the next 10-20 years virtual worlds will become bigger than the web is now. I would be very interested in your views on this. I gave a speech in Birmingham at the end of last year on the impact of virtual worlds on organisational training and development. What a change that will be. Would be very willing to contribute to the debate.
I’m afraid I’m not much of an expert on Second Life etc. I have enough difficulty with First Life. I’m working on an internet start-up at the moment called Third Life – a place to escape the pressures of Second and First Life using cross-platform technology including a cold flannel for the forehead.
I find the literalness of places like Second Life equally charming and mundane. Given the possibilities of our imagination, it’s a bit odd how people create loft apartments for themselves with glass tables and gadgets. With a blank sheet of a world before us (when SL came into being), it’s a little sad prostitution and sex with furry animals was invented so early. But I agree, virtual worlds have barely begun to make their impact in learning and beyond.
Interesting ‘Money Programme’ on Facebook. The odd cycnic and a few people enjoying having 1500 friends etc. Ann Widdecombe rightly saying it is just another communcation tool – though a valuable one to her. I have started a book called ‘Wikinomics where one commentator uses the phrase ‘mass mediocrity’ to describe FB. But this can also be appllied to Second Life I guess too.
I think most people would agree that its current stock market valuation is crazy.
I liked the Warhol adaptation for the blogging age: ‘Famous for 15 friends’
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Adam, lovin’ the Warhol hack-a-quote
There’s no greater hack