p.s. – Don’t skip to the bottom 😉

As my prior post stated – sorry for the rant – I really did not understand why we are so transfixed on the next this and that. Then I got to thinking (please no funny comments here). Before you read this let me just say that I understand that evolution is good, and pushing the barriers is also good, but there comes a time and a place where you need to just sit back and let things happen.

Given all of the changes that Facebook has made recently, and over time for that matter, as outlined on The Huffington Post Blog  (Very interesting 2005 – present overview of how Facebook’s privacy policy has evolved), why would we not begin to look elsewhere? Yes we can set access levels to specific groups or people, and I have taken full advantage of those tools, but should we have to? Should we really be forced to control our data and be “opt’d-in” to the changes that they are making? While I understand that opting everyone in to a change will increase adoption, it can also, and many times will, have a negative effect on your community.

I have heard of people closing their account (and others that who thinking about it), while others are refusing to even open a Facebook account. Closing your account because of the changes can be seen as a knee-jerk reaction.  While I agree with many of the concerns, I am not ready to close down yet. While these are both extreme cases, it just really shows that there are many people out there that are unhappy with all these changes.

Time and time again, when things begin to spiral out of control, I generally try to sit down and let things settle for a little while. After the dust settles, you can then truly review the situation holistically and without emotion getting in the way.

What do I want out of Facebook? What happened to the tool that allowed me to create online relationships with my friends and keep in touch with them? Post photos with my networks, see what my friends were doing, and create events and groups…. They grew and grew and made some minor changes over time, some were good and others were not so much. People flocked to use the service and once they became the “3rd largest country in the world” they began to try to take over the Web. While I understand that may be a direction to go, I don’t think that it will happen.

Can you think of another Social Networking site that was similar to Facebook? One that has taken a back-seat to all of these changes? One that may just simply benefit from all of these changes? Now I may be stretching a little bit here, but would it not be ironic that the answer to “What is the next Facebook” questions turns out to be who Facebook beat out years ago?

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