How Facebook will change the world.

Social networking: a good idea or just something to play with when you are bored at work ?

For most people I suspect it's the later. They log in for much the same reason they look at the BBC news website or any number of Blogs, the content might have changed from the last time they looked and sometimes that is all you need. Facebook has the advantage that it's a personalised news feed about you and your mates. You can contribute to the "conversation" or simply lurk and enjoy the show. As a storage medium for the greatest number of photos of drunk people it has no equal.

But I think it means more than this. Quite simply, Facebook will alter how people live in the future.

The easiest way to explain this is to examine the workplace. You probably spend more time with the people around you than you do with your friends or even family. Yet you have no control over who they are most of the time. In fact I bet that you would have never met them in your life except that you all ended up working at the same place. Now these people are generally not your friends - you stay together because someone pays you to. OK, so it's pretty common to make friends and even meet your spouse at work, but there is no guarantee of this and it's not really and essential part of the reason you are all there in the first place.

To prove this, simply think how many people you are in regular contact with from your last job. Or the one before that.Bet the numbers pretty quickly get back to zero as you work your way through your career.

But, along comes Facebook and you start adding some of these people to your list of friends. On-line everyone wants to look popular and your other friends won't know how well you know these people. That means though, that you never loose track of your old colleagues. Or school friends. Or people you met on holiday.

OK, so you still don't see them every day or even every year but you still have a window into their life. Their status will change every so often. You will see photos of what they are up to. You can never escape them or they escape you. To do this you actually have to delete them as a friend and that seems so; final. It's like dumping someone. They will know you did it so you opt for the easy life and just add to the list.

This is of course, weird. These people aren't really your friend except in the very loosest sense. The correct word is probably acquaintance. They are people you might nod to in the street or perhaps stop for a quick catch up chat but nothing longer than a couple of minutes.

Worse, you may feel it better to keep the peace and accept friend invitations from people you don't like. After all you are going to see this person on Monday morning so it's better to take the path of least resistance. Now you can't escape the annoying guy in the office - for the rest of your life.

People are already developing on and off-line persona's. Dealing with this huge slew of people who you once knew will be part of this. But as the boundaries get blurred, something they can't help but do since your real friends will expect to be Facebook friends too, this must affect your life. Maybe it will be a good thing with people realising this is a small world. Humans are, after all, social animals but what happens when you want to escape ? Can we ever be alone ? Can society accept that anyone would ever wish to be alone ?