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My thoughts re Facebook

Recently survived a 3 day conference of marketing experts and technology crusaders and CEOs (essentially a lot of type 'A' and some D+ personalities) espousing the virtues of what is now commonly refered to as the 'Social Network'.

Ah - that is not to say that people did not network prior to the coining of said term - or that they were not social. It is merely depicting a technology enabled access and rapidly scalable version of connecting people that may have at one point been engaged in a relationship - perfunctory or profound; then forgotten of each others' existence after their respective careers or life streams took them afar.

Facebook happens to be the 'King of the Hill' and a rapidly ascended King @ that in this space.

So what of this concept and its applicability to what are called 'Millenials' (another jargonized word depciting people legal to drink but under the age of 34 today). This demographic (numbering close to 70 Million Americans) is viewed as a ripe for harvest consumer base with specific wants and desires; vocal about the same; empathetic about the plight of their brethren across the planet (for those that are aware of additional brethren sharing the globe) and yet always wanting to make several of their decisions based on peer feedback.

As such marketers were trying to define the space which would be lucrative to many of the attendees in setting aim to relieve these individuals of their loose change. Another aspect of this arrangement is to acknowledge that these folks typically only survive on loose change i.e. are not terribly well off; drive cheaper autos; and tend to spend on consumer staples as opposed to high ticket items.

All the debates and presentations and Q and A aside the takeaways for me were as follows:

'Facebooking' is a nascent concept and as with many things tech - seems to have rapidly exploded to gain a fan following of about 10% of the earth's population;

It is a fantastic channel to engage people of like opinion to serve a worthy cause like fight illiteracy, teen pregnancy, crime or terror and there are heart warming examples galore;

It is also viewed by those that market to look to every new subscriber (unbeknownst to most Millenials who do not comprehend the scope of this service) as a prospect to sell to;

It can become a telecommunication highway artery clogging distraction, given the relatively cheap access to the service itself and also in some cases lead to or be accretive to ADD (attention deficit disorder) in the country and around the world.

How the earthlings adopt, understand, and use this tool will like any thing else be determined by the maturity of their cerebral cortex.

I for one am watching this one with more than a passing interest - no personal account yet - not sold on the idea you see!

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