Current Thinking from Brad Gibson

It was not enough that Todd Cochrane decided to try 15 minutes on Facebook. No... I had to do it too. Man, you would think that his experience would be enough. No... I had to do it too.

And now?

Facebook has my account (with my fake birthday -- I'm not telling you my birthday -- why do you need my birthday?) on "deactivation". You see; you cannot delete your account at Facebook. They will keep it and you "can come back anytime". There's nobody there from my town, my schools, my "era", my nuclear silo, my group, my work, my after-life or my make-believe Crimean War regiment.

What else did I discover? My own embarrassment at realizing that Facebook is a quasi-dating site. Count down from last year to a suitable year of high school graduation in, say, 1980. The numbers of Facebookers ('bookies?, 'booksters?, 'bookmeisters?) will fall at a rate of about 1/y from the previous year after about 3 or 4 years (where y is the number of years from this year). Take a look at the photos. Lots of young single people. This is social networking the way Tony Manero could only dream of social networking.

The interface is ordinary, the "tools" are non-existent, the look is pedestrian, the terms of use are decidedly tipped against the user and it doesn't do much. I am -- once again -- compelled to contemplate why I am so inexplicably unable to accept that pet rocks are incredible money makers. To the owners and operators of Facebook; this is brilliant. Why do Web 2.0 when the world only wants Web 1.163? Congratulations, and I will not be back. You are free to fully delete my "deactivated" account.

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