It is not length of life, but depth of life.Ralph Waldo Emerson

The illusion of Facebook

Call me naïve, call me ignorant, but here is what I think of Facebook’s economic woes. You may or may not know that investors are edgy or dissatisfied or disappointed or fearful that the company has either lost them money or not made them what they were looking for. When Facebook went public recently at a phenomenal opening price it was based on the fact that given its popularity and the number of people who use it, the users were in some way an untapped source of revenue. Facebook executives still believe that, one said this week the underlying issue is due to the fact they have to work further on their monetization. A columnist wrote of their problems, that they are having an identity crisis thinking they can offer a free service, when in fact they can’t. I’d rather think that the identity crisis stems from trying to turn an orange into an apple. Facebook’s success rose from its being a social media and it does look that if that erodes so does its success. They can have ads, and yet past a certain point people will more than likely be turned off if there are too many and not use Facebook, which apparently in some cases is already happening with the very mobile apps the executives are betting on. No matter how I think of Facebook and its sagging financial fortune, it seems to me that here is a case where a lot of grown ups can still participate in mass illusion and that greed can trump common sense, knowledge and experience.