I have been bombarded with emails and requests from friends and people I havent been in touch with for what seems like centuries to join a growing empire of faces.. yes, I am talking about Facebook. I think I am one of the only few people out there who is not part of the network and so much so, that at this point, I refuse to be a part of it.

I come in to the LSE library "which is meant to be a studious place", and instead people are talking about the search for Orlando Bloom, the posting of messages, and the poking, all on Facebook. While this is not to say that the network does not have any advantages to becoming a member, but at this point, I feel that it has become just that - just another network, one of the many online. Wait until the next one comes along and steals all of Facebook's members. In an article in the London paper yesterday evening, Facebook was given the credit for starting this new global social phenomenon. Please!! It started a long time ago, with far more worthy causes attached.

I am reading a lot of literature nowadays from Manuel Castells (great book by the way) to Chris Atton to Andrew Chadwick (a must read) on alternative media and the internet, and the power that they can have in changing our notion of community and in instilling change in our social environments. So perhaps that is why I am growing skeptical of Facbook, which seems to me, all about the popularity aspect and not really about trying to make the world a smaller place using low cost technologies and at a faster speed. What could have added value to the alternative media debate has now turned to yet another mainstream medium, making $50 million a year from banner ad sales and sponsorship deals and with its worth far exceeding $2 billion.