While anyone who has ever used Facebook will be able to identify with that statement in one way or another, it seems quite poignant in the light of the recent introduction of 'Facebook Messages'.
A service designed to merge all of our communications into one universal format, Facebook Messages is designed to augment and possibly replace SMS, email, instant messaging by combining them into one streamlined, organized and simple program. In an effort to make communication less formal and more intimate, all messages are threaded into 'conversations', with each Facebook user given the option to create an @facebook.com email address if they so wish. To quote Facebook, "all you should need to send a person a message is the person, and the message...we want this to feel like a conversation among friends... no Subject line, no Bcs and no Cccs...when you come back to your computer or your phone, you should be able to pick up right where you left off".
The most important innovation present here, however, seems to be the so-called "social inbox". In a short promotional video (embedded below), it was stressed that logging into your email to find a message from your mother sandwiched in-between a bank statement and a bill meant that there was something wrong. Facebook aims to change this by offering a standard inbox view in which only messages from from your closest friends and family are shown, each ranked according to a system that you develop and you control.
This provides both an effective way of dealing with spam and those annoying promotional emails from companies who send you emails because they forced you to register an account with them. Unfortunately, if someone who does not use Facebook sends you an email, you will have to authenticate them just as you would with a normal email service. Thankfully, Facebook makes it very easy to block people you do not want sending you messages, and vice versa.
Also included is a service called "social context". Log onto your email or your Facebook Inbox right now. Don't worry. I'll wait. Done? Okay. Find the messages from your friends. Read out the subject lines. I've found three - "you", "christmas" and "hey". Facebook realizes that
a) This tells me nothing about the content of my messages.
b) It's annoying.
So they've designed a system in which messages are organized by sender and by content. If you send a friend a text, and they want to reply by email, then great - it works. If you write on a friend's wall and they Facebook chat you back, great - it works. So what Facebook has done is allow you to streamline your electronic communication in a number of ways that I believe are excellent improvements.
Looking at the new Facebook Messages service head on, it seems spectacular. Finally, a fix for nearly all of the problems that plague electronic conversation. But just consider this. Facebook will, if you sign up for and use this service, know who you text, who you email, who you chat with, who your friends are and in what order you rank them. They will know everything you say and they will know everyone you say it to. They will take that information and they will sell it to the highest bidder so that you can be the subject of targeted ads on your phone, your computer, your iPod and your tablet. The question is, do you care?
