Some of us can remember the script from previous plays in which we acted — Friendster, Tribe.net, MySpace. Flavor-of-the-whatever online communities that captivated us for a while — then, just as quickly, lost its vibrancy (like that delicious Trader Joes gum with the criminally short taste-lifespan, the one in the green box).

Most of us can agree, I’m sure, that Facebook has gone farther and deeper than the social networks that came before. More than one friend likened one’s first frenzied weeks on Facebook as being thrown into a vortex — between getting friended by your second-grade playground buddy and playing word games and poking and posting pithy updates, there’s a dizzying amount to absorb and do.

I recently told a colleague that, to me, Facebook was a handy, low-effort way to maintain my friendships. She thought that that cheapened the idea of friendship, but I don’t; I have a lot of friends, and (let’s face it) we all  just don’t have the time/wherewithall to keep up regular contact. I feel truly connected, being able to see, in one handy page, the goings-on of lots of my loved ones.

Never for a second do I think it is going to last. You never know when the herd will move on. It’s inevitable, no matter how much we (and Facebook!) want it to continue on and on into some fuzzy concept of “forever.” This makes me sad. This makes me resigned. This makes me keep important contact information and emails in a place other than Facebook’s servers.

And never for a second do I think that my content is my own I originate it on Facebook. I don’t trust the third party as a general, paranoid rule. I’m not saying Facebook or other social sites have a bottom-line intent to steal and exploit us and our content, but … The brouhaha of a few weeks ago surrounding Facebook’s privacy features was positive in that people started thinking about what they generate, and where they generate it, and to whom it belongs. My friend Liz has a great post about the fracas, Understanding the Facebook Terms of Service douchesplosion:

So at Facebook the douches are thinking up ways to “monetize” all the free user-generated content that people have put on the site. Probably the recent spate of “25 things” essays started it–”hey we could publish those things as books or something, if we only had the rights. We need the rights!” And then they argue for it by saying “In this terrible economy, with our valuation plummeting, we HAVE to do this. Or the site will DIE. We HAVE TO!!” and the CEO or whoever is sufficiently scared into saying yes.

This is why I have beckyhaycox.com (which is hosted by a trustworthy company I have been with for 11 years), and generate my blog posts from my site (and sometimes post the link on Facebook.) This is why I have WordPress installed on my own site, and back up my content regularly. This is why I ask friends to comment on my blog, and not on Facebook. I’m trying to keep a little fence around my garden of odd weeds and scrubby flowers.

I think Facebook made a big mistake, launching a surprise redesign of their site so soon on the heels of their Terms of Service kerfluffle. You’ll never get a consensus when change is made, but I can agree with most of the people I know: the new design absolutely sucks. Everyone’s quieting down and getting used to it (or quietly signing off forever,) but I think it’s only going to spur the herd to move on that much faster. My friend Jill (always with the great updates) captures the thud-like debut of the Facebook redesign:

How did this get past all the committees it must have had to get past in order to parade, lamely, into existence?

Basically, I’m trying to find a balance between being a free ‘n’ easy hippie running through the woods, and being a militia of one, in my bunker and tinfoil hat. All I know for sure is that I need my friends.

At any rate, I wish Facebook good luck! At least they are trying to come up with a magical formula to keep us — or, at least, to get free content from us. They have a business plan — unlike other flavors of the month, that I will speak of in the next installment.

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• weighing in on the social networking hub-bub part 1: photos

This is the second in a series about my humble opinions and observations as an enduser, about social networking and online communities in general. This is prompted by the recent controversites surrounding Facebook. I invite everyone to write about their own opinions and observations. I think we’re at a real crossroads with this technology, and our voices should be heard. We have a chance to make a change!