Well, the USPS may not sell the information that you subscribe to Hustler & Home Gardening but the magazines themselves are.

^ That is true.

I didn't mean, "Is what Facebook is doing important?" I was seriously questioning the statement in the article that stated that Facebook, itself, had become important. To me, it's just another social networking toy. One that I don't use because too many relatives would feel the need to share opinions I don't really care to hear.

By my (strictly subjective) standards of importance: LoT is not. My friendships from LoT are. My smartphone is not. Access to a phone is. The postal service is. And, you're right, the post office would be out of line to start sharing my personal info in order to gain financial sponsorship. I don't disagree one bit. So, my question isn't about Facebook's policies, which I do think are important, in that it's sh!tty to take unfair advantage of your customers. (Much like the banks, but I digress.) My question is about whether Facebook has achieved some level of "importance." I always thought it was just another internet site full of the ramblings of people standing near you at the DMV.

I would argue that Twitter has, in fact, achieved a level of importance, because of the usefulness it demonstrated during last week's tornadoes in the midwest, the recent earthquakes, and the Iranian protests. Which then makes my smartphone important again. ;)

And my answer was that, for many people it has. I'm sure there were lots of people that felt about the telephone the way you feel about facebook. And frivolous novelty. However, while there is no question that it contains an aspect of frivolity, it has grown rather quickly into a useful and ubiquitous tool for communication, a form of communication for which there is no easy substitute.

Without it sounding like baiting, what about FaceBook is not easy to substitute? Am I that old? I feel like I'm asking why the telegraph is so much better than smoke signals. What I suspect I'm asking is why a touchscreen phone is better than one with a keypad.

It's not that any one particular aspect of Facebook is irreplaceable. Status updates are essentially twitter, photo posting can be accomplished with flickr or MMS or other photo sharing options, links can be emailed, etc. etc. But Facebook has gotten its users accustomed to having it all together in a single interface, and in a way that allows you to reach many people all at once with minimal effort. Once you are accustomed to it, I can't think of any other way I could communicate the things I do on Facebook, to the variety of people I'm able to, anywhere near as conveniently.

The power of Facebook is that nearly everyone is there already.

In the past, I'd post a photo on a site like Photobucket, and then I'd email some friends and post it here for others. If you know people on different sites you need to visit all your haunts to get your stuff out to everyone.

When almost everyone is in one place, it makes posting things infinitely easier. My posted photo on Facebook is seen by parents, cousins, in-laws, old high school buddies, college friends, many of you guys, and other myriad friends. I didn't even add circles like coworkers and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before my new mom group friends get on there too.

Another example - I've gotten over 30 Happy Birthday posts on my wall so far today, from all the various groups I listed above. It's only 2pm and I'm sure I'll get plenty more. It's pretty neat.

The 5 isn't hard to substitute. In fact, substitutes already exist, you can drive from Los Angeles to Seattle without ever using it (as I almost have). But it is still important for being essentially the easiest path connecting them and having been such a force that much of the surrounding infrastructure (except through the Central Valley) has adjusted to it rather than vice versa.

Speak for yourself Missy! It is a near fatal flaw that Facebook has generated a new stream of birthday comments that I have no hope of shutting down short of deleting my account.

Ok, starting to get it. However, my mom, and all those relatives, are still on Facebook, so I won't be. At least, not in the social way I am here.

Facebook has so taken over the birthday market, I often neglect to cross-post birthday wishes on twitter or here on the LoT. Facebook is the defacto for birthdays and so much more.

It's revolutionized the sympathy industry. I was truly moved and aided by the flood of sympathy posts I got when my mom died. I have so many facebook friends, I forgot there's not 100% overlap and was surprised when a few of my twitter pals and LoTmates didn't know my mother passed away.

Regardless, I'm glad we don't have to rely on the mails for condolence cards. They arrive after they are most needed, imo. Facebook was perfect.


In fact, the only bad thing about it is its too ubiquitous. I have to restrain myself sometimes because family members are on there, too.