Is Facebook Becoming My Space Redux

We all remember when Facebook burst on to the scene. Became the cool new thing. Helped to usher in the era of pervasive social media.

Much like the Internet itself, one day we never heard of this Facebook thing and the next it was starring in its very own Hollywood movie, it soared across the globe like a digital comet, its IPO was the rage of Wall Street and its founder became a rock star.

Right before FB became the information/communications source for billions, Myspace was the cool new thing. If you were to be anyone -- especially below the age of 40 -- you had to have a presence on Myspace.

And then, in what seemed like an instant, you didn't as Facebook sucked all of the air out of the universe, Mark Zuckerberg became Bill Gates, traditional media watched in horror as zillions of dollars moved from magazines to Mark and we all settled in for a life ever after with what had started out as a college prank.

But the world of fads, fashion, technology and business have a way of doing 180s on us. Suddenly, Facebook is NOT at the center of cool but instead the object of a viral hashtag attack #deleteface, in the midst of near violent political acrimony, a sure target of global legal interrogation and prey to hostile congressional investigation.

The specter of Mark Zuckerberg facing politicos with his hand raised to signify that he is under oath is surely ominous enough, but nowhere near the mathematical and social/cultural fact that Facebook is no longer cool to millions who were once its proudest users. Once a business becomes a cult it is vulnerable to the same forces that drove its mystical success.

So I ask, is Facebook about to become Myspace Redux?

And I say that except for the vast number of legacy users it clings to, the answer is that it already is!

Who knows, perhaps the MF converts will revert to an ascending MS.