From 2004 to 2011 reaching 700 million member base is commendable. But is also inevitably unsustainable. Lets do some calculations, let us make some modest assumptions, let us assume that each user does facebook for half an hour every day (though i think the actual average would be much higher) applying the 80-20 rule 20% of 30 mins is not useful or shall I say aimless (and most probably) wasteful browsing. 6 mins every day by 100 million people (users crudely averaged over time) for 7 years, 3.5 billion wasted man hours. That is 3 times the time it took to build pyramids. So effectively, we are losing a wonder of the world almost every 2 years thanks to facebook. What is your problem? facebook lovers might ask, there are 100 other web apps where people waste time why target only facebook. Well the reason is we are not just losing time on facebook, we are also losing ourselves. Every profile image change, every snap upload, every status change, every added tag bothers me. It does so because it reminds me of our attempt to create a world that doesn’t exist, of the striking similarities with the Plato’s cave of consciousness, how light projects us on the wall (facebook wall, in this case) and the images interact. We are tying too much to the shadows and their interplay. All of us in some way (small or big) have turned into imposters who are too obsessed with their perceived selves. Do we really want to interact so much with so many. It is sad how quickly sharing becomes boasting, “friend list” becomes large then unmanageable then irrelevant. It is the addiction and obsession with the unreal that bothers me. However something that is so popular for so long can not be all bad, and thankfully it is not, I think platforms like facebook are wonderful for broadcasting information. Problem comes when we start trying to project ourselves on to a webpage. That even if it were possible, is not worth it. This mammoth growth bubble is bound to burst, its only a matter of time. For those who are wondering how can we even live without facebook, well we are just 8% of the world population, and believe me the rest 92% are doing just fine.