[motters]

There is perhaps some chance that I could be wrong due to the substantial inertia which Facebook has now accumulated, but I expect that it's just another fad which seems to be peaking if my spider-senses are correct. Facebook is not a particularly brilliant application and the amount of value it delivers is also not that great. If you're a Facebook user or addict, just pause for a moment and ask yourself how much actual value you're getting out of it relative to the time invested.

[edanm]

Honestly? Facebook gives me a ton of value. I keep in closer contact than I otherwise would, with more people I care about. It's simply a more scalable means of keeping in touch with people.

I find it odd that people say things like "that's what we have email and messenger and calendars and sms for". That's the point - I've replaced 5 programs with 1. I still use email and sms (messenger, not so much). But it's now all in one place, with all the people I care about right there, without having to start exchanging usernames.

[Wilduck]

I don't know how recently you've been a college student, but Facebook still offers a large ammount of value to that demographic. I would hate to make 100+ phone calls to invite people to a party, or to spend the money/time making and posting flyers.

Sure I'd jump ship if another platform provided more value, but that's (somewhat) different then a fad.

[_fool]

i haven't been in college for 10 years now and i still use facebook (and twitter, and livejournal) to broadcast party invites. there are about 5 people whom i like, and see in person regularly who do not get their news that way, and they get an email about those events.

funny enough, i never set facebook status updates or read anyone else's. i guess creating an event posts it in your stream, but the direct-invite and invited-by-friends feature is the extent of my use of facebook (people do message me on there and i reply via email).

my parties generally have a good mix of highschoolers to 60 somethings. i'll grant you that 2/3 of the sixty somethings are my neighbors and they get the email invite, but a lot of the 50-plus social crowd in portland, OR is on facebook.

the other benefit to using a tool like facebook to do (open) party invites is that people can invite their friends. most of my parties are open; i trust my friends' judgment not to bring/invite assholes. and it works out remarkably well. i've hosted thousands of people at around a hundred parties (some are smaller dinner parties, but still open invite) since i started this strategy, at least half of whom i did not know at all, and only 2 things have ever been broken/stolen. total value lost: $80. total connectedness gained & fun had? incalculable (but huge).

WORKSFORME, without being my only or even main method of socialization (which is decidedly in real life).

[dominostars]

If people are Facebook users or addicts, it means they're getting something from it. That something might not be good for them, but people aren't going to volunteer hours a day doing something that isn't providing value in some way.

Facebook may go away, but the reasons why people use sites like Facebook will not. And it's really important to try and discover what those reasons are, so that you can offer that value in your own product.

Drugs are horrible for your body and for your life, but people still use it because it offers something they want. You can sit back and call drugs a fad, or you can look into why people use drugs. With that knowledge, you can invent something radically new that is healthy, and replaces drugs. Or, you can just invent cheaper, stronger drugs. Either way, you'll be rich.

[brlewis]

The brilliance of Facebook is that it draws in lots of users. Their funnel is amazing. The app at the bottom of that funnel isn't that great, but manages to deliver value because of the huge userbase.

[motters]

And this is also its weakness because if its only virtue is that it's "the cool place to hang out in cyberspace" then this is very vulnerable to changes in fashion (see MySpace/Second Life/LiveJournal/GeoCities).

[jokermatt999]

Except at this point your parents are on Facebook. They were never on MySpace/Second Life/LiveJournal/GeoCities. While some of its value is "the cool place", it's also the place a lot of my family's social events (birthday parties, etc) are announced. If my 23 year old cousin switches to HotNewSocialSite, she'd still have to be on Facebook to find out about Granddad's 90th birthday get together simply because that's how the word gets out now, for better or worse.