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Concerns about Facebook's impact on the public commons

I find myself wondering about Facebook's impact on the public commons. I like using Facebook very much, but it has sort of a gated community mentality about it. On the plus side, everything is so protected with privacy that we have a feeling of security, and we may share things via Facebook that we wouldn't share in public. 

But conversely, it's so easy to share in Facebook that we may find the act of microblogging in Facebook scratches whatever itch we have for sharing. As a result, we may then neglect to share in a more intentional, reflective, and broad way via traditional blogs.

Instead of a well thought out essay shared publicly where our thoughts can become fodder for discussion within the blogosphere, we end up with with 20 words shared within our tiny circle of friends and quickly lost as it rolls off everyone's News feed.

What do you think? Is blogging's greatest danger actually the rise of Facebook and related social networking microblogging?

Posted by will hertling on November 25, 2008 10:18 PM |


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