Facebook is the new raising star: many people talk about it, many know someone who uses it but many are disappointed with it for some reason.
Never in the time of the Internet we could see so many people so upset with a technology: if you look back many where the technologies who upset their users: Windows blue screen of death, Mobiles loosing coverage, software programs on new cars, Gmail limited invitations, … but all these problems where assumed as the cost of evolution and were temporary.
Facebook related problems are there for very important reasons:
- What is social about being seated on a desk or looking at your mobile?.
- What is social about sharing your opinions openly with all your friends, whether they are atheists, catholics, muslins, married, divorced, homosexual?
- What is social about having online a close group of friends you already previously knew?
- Is it desirable to have your contacts gently handled to a company like Facebook Inc?.
- You name it, the wikipedia criticism entry on Facebook is worth a whole book!. And if you read it with time you will appreciate some of those claims are very bad stuff.
Those problems are structural, not occasional. An example of occasional problem would be the trolls manipulating Wikipedia, or the Internet Explorer ignorance for standards… but these problems are clearly to be solved when the need is really strong enough.
The problem with Facebook and social online networking is that it is flawed by definition. There are so little good things you can do with an online social network that it is not worth the time or the effort using one, in fact people with a social stimulating life, rarely use Facebook.