Even though Facebook is largely defined by the power users and the company's goal is to just keep ratcheting up engagement, I don't think that's the right way to judge it as a service.
As a casual user who visits Facebook a couple times a week, I find it to be tremendously valuable. Contrast with email for a moment. I somehow made it into my inlaws' family list. This is a group of perhaps 100 families who all manage their own copy of the list via Reply All. Many of them post multi-page updates of their domestic tasks several times a week. I can never be removed from or block this list because I may receive legitimate email from any of these people. I may occasionally actually be interested in what they are doing, but as it is the problem is worse than spam by a long shot. Now that some of them are getting on Facebook it is a huge improvement. I can block the truly annoying people and still keep ambient awareness of what's going on on my own schedule.
I think Facebook is a tremendously useful tool, which is often obscured inside the echo-chamber by the feeding frenzies around virality and engagement. In other words, I believe Facebook is sustainable.
As a casual user who visits Facebook a couple times a week, I find it to be tremendously valuable. Contrast with email for a moment. I somehow made it into my inlaws' family list. This is a group of perhaps 100 families who all manage their own copy of the list via Reply All. Many of them post multi-page updates of their domestic tasks several times a week. I can never be removed from or block this list because I may receive legitimate email from any of these people. I may occasionally actually be interested in what they are doing, but as it is the problem is worse than spam by a long shot. Now that some of them are getting on Facebook it is a huge improvement. I can block the truly annoying people and still keep ambient awareness of what's going on on my own schedule.
I think Facebook is a tremendously useful tool, which is often obscured inside the echo-chamber by the feeding frenzies around virality and engagement. In other words, I believe Facebook is sustainable.