Are we in a never-ending cycle of new social networking sites?

I remember loving Friendster. I remember liking Myspace. Now I love Facebook. Each time it kind of feels like there's no room for any other. And each time it gets replaced (for the most part) by something new.

I read a theory (I think it was in Wired, but I can't find it now) that held that we go to a new social networking site when too many people are on the one you're currently using. So you go to a new, up and coming one, where you'll just connect with your real friends. Of course, eventually, everyone goes to the new one, and the cycle repeats. I don't know if this is true, but it's an interesting theory.

So now I read
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/nyu-students-aim-to-invent-facebook-again-weve-got-your-back/
which is reporting as news that someone is trying to make a new social networking site because "Facebook is so...Facebook."  The developers don't like how Facebook is using our personal data to monetize Facebook. I suppose they think social networking should be free.

It was only in September, 2009, that Facebook actually started making any money.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Financials
That's 5 years and many millions of dollars later. Just in time for people to get sick of it!

Maybe Facebook is selling information about us that it shouldn't. But I get the sense that people feel entitled to free social networking sites, complete with email and video and image hosting.

But they've got to make it profitable, or we won't have it anymore, folks.

Of course, maybe soon after it's sustainable everyone will have jumped ship to a new site that feels like an exclusive club.

For now.

Pictured: A composite photograph of Italy. Why not?


postscript: I realize this entry is not as good as my usual ones. Thank you for bearing with me. Even Einstein expressed trivial opinions once in a while. But not John von Neumann. Now there was a genius!