[tambourine_man]

Can we stop this already?

No we can't.

Imagine yourself going back to the 80s and explaining the Web to someone. It's as close to utopia as you can get. Most people probably wouldn't believe it. But it's real, it's here and it's amazing.

I'd argue that Facebook undermines a lot of what makes the Web great. And since it's being confused with the Web itself, by being so popular and pervasively devouring, it could be a treat to it.

Us nerds have failed, for whatever reason, to provide a decent competitive way to share stuff that's more aligned with the ethos of the Web. But that's not a reason to excuse Facebook.

But I disagree no one would give a shit if Facebook went away tomorrow. I for one would throw a big fucking party.

[18pfsmt]

While I generally agree with you, I think people like us are somewhat to blame for not providing an alternative to FB that is as easy to use. I also blame my friends, relatives and acquaintances that have been so easily seduced, but I'm not sure that's fair.

Thankfully, my parents are too old to have any interest in FB, and my siblings are equally as cynical (aka "weird").

[tambourine_man]

Sure we are to blame, we are the ones that know better and have the knowledge to build something else. That's what I meant when I said we failed to provide a decent competitive way to share stuff.

The hardest part in my opinion is not the users experience per se, Facebook's not that great. It's getting the traction and the cool factor that's needed to beat the chicken-egg conundrum (I use FB because everybody else does).

[saraid216]

> I also blame my friends, relatives and acquaintances that have been so easily seduced, but I'm not sure that's fair.

It's really not. That's like blaming people for driving cars before autonomous cars came out.

[nsmartt]

It's more like blaming people for eating at Chick-fil-A.

They're supporting a company that is, in our eyes, committing a moral wrong. The difference, in the case of Facebook, is that they aren't necessarily aware of this moral wrong.

[thewarrior]

As a young internet user I would like to know what this utopia was like ..

[chris_wot]

Two things: read The Cookoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll, and secondly grab a copy of Gopherspace (see this article here: http://boingboing.net/2010/04/29/all-of-gopherspace-a.html)