Wither Facebook

Facebook was fun while it lasted. It enabled people to easily do two things they love to do: connect with others and talk about themselves. Then Facebook got greedy. (Or "ambitious" if you prefer.) No longer content to be a digital diversion, Facebook decided to take on Twitter and LinkedIn and all its competitors at once. Now, while attempting to post and share amusing bits of our lives, Facebook assaults us with invitations to join BranchOut and Klout that demand an ever-growing share of our personal bandwidth. And then there's that insidious Timeline, which Facebook unilaterally decided is a better way for us to present our personal information. I've stopped visiting the pages of my Friends who use Timeline because it gives me a migraine. Soon everyone will be forced to switch to Timeline, and whatever minor pleasure I once derived from using Facebook will be gone forever. Remember the days when seemingly everyone was on AOL? Those chat rooms sure were addictive. AOL grew powerful enough to swallow Time Warner! Then, overnight, AOL was uncool. A late-night punch line. Soon it receded from view. All in under a decade. A similar fate awaits Facebook. Soon the next disruptive technology will come along and render Facebook passé. In ten years, Facebook will be a distant memory and a handy touchstone for period films set in 2009. What will replace Facebook's share of hearts, minds, and wallets? Of late, interest seems to be growing in Pinterest, but if you've never been into scrapbooking, I doubt this will change your mind. Tumblr? Foursquare? Who knows? Maybe Twitter will grow restless and grow up. In all likelihood, a service you've never heard of will catch fire and capture the zeitgeist. Just like Facebook did. And MySpace before it. And AOL before that. It's inevitable. It's the way of the digital world.  The only question is: How many people will be sorry they bought Facebook stock?