Don’t Like Facebook? Too Bad. It Isn’t Going Anywhere

There are few certainties in the way the Internet works nowadays. Sites come and go, replaced by similar sites that just do it better. One website will remain though: Facebook.com.

Growing up you undoubtedly looked at your parents photo albums, pictures of you as a baby, pictures of them when they were first married, that kind of thing. Facebook is a new kind of photo album, a digital one, one that stays with us from the day we sign up until our inevitable end. It’s a powerful photo album at that. Not only do you have your personal pictures, you have friends’ pictures that you’re in. Your photo album is a compilation of people and places that you’ve been, a collaboration of cameras. It’s not like anything your parents ever had. Most high school users who have been using it for a year or two can already say that Facebook has cataloged their life in a way no normal photo album could. Through Homecoming, Fall, Winter Ball, Christmas break, Spring semester, Spring break, the final days of the year and summer, every picture has something to say about that year, something that they won’t be abandoning anytime soon.

The design is static and that’s important. MySpace was a come and go kind of website. There was the rush in, people played for a bit, took some pictures that invariably got them in trouble and then they left. They left for Facebook where they could organize and keep track of their photos, friends and interests better because Facebook’s design is static. No decorations, no automatic flash player to invade your Internet experience with audio and movies that are almost always unwanted. Facebook keeps it simple and quiet and that’s what users like.

As parents and loved ones move on to Facebook, expanding the user base past students and those who have just graduated from school, families will be connected digitally. They will be able to organize events and share memories like never before. Sure a phone call or an email works but why do that when you can invite all of your loved ones to a group for a family reunion and plan everything out with them online? It may not sound like much but Facebook will bring together families strewn throughout the country and the world like no phone call, letter or email ever could.

So stop worrying about the Terms of Service. Stop worrying that Facebook is taking over because it isn’t going anywhere. It’s one of the most brilliantly designed pieces of technology that has interfaced itself with the human race. 145 million users can attest to its power to bring people together, to create a new form of interaction and communication like never before, and that is why Facebook will be around for your kids to use and beyond.

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