Interesting article. I’m starting to feel old and I’m only 30 :-) I signed up to facebook one time and I didn’t see what the big deal was. I agree with @Dax@, there are too many Big brother issues. I do a lot of texting though — usually to send short bits of info or questions, like “I’m eating at…, come over.” If it’s too long or complicated, I’ll call.

Call me an old-timer, but I don’t use facebook. I typically use IM or the phone. Hell, I don’t even text people. To me, facebook seems to expose just a bit too much about a person. Even if you try to keep things limited, things tend to get out. Plus, I’m not too keen on old high school mates sending me random messages.

So we’re not allowed to call people anymore? I suddenly feel old.

Hi Luke,

Burst messages and streams in the corporate world are happening already. It might not be “mainstream” yet, but it is far from uncommon. It does not happen only on Facebook (LinkedIn is still by far the favorite equivalent in our business world) but it does happen on it too. And on Twitter, and various other similar applications. More interestingly, maybe, it is in no way reserved to internal communication. Most people in marketing are beginning to learn how to master external communications on these “social media” as well. I hate calling these social though, because I think they are extremely ego-centered. But they are some sort of modern agora or forum (in the Ancient meaning). You publish there if you want to be heard. But mainly if you want to be heard by your peers.

Here in Portugal we still use manly IM messaging (along with SMS). Nobody really knows Facebook and the only thing they use besides IM is Hi5, but manly for sharing photos. I’m a kind of a stranger between my peers. I don’t use much my phone and I’m still amazed by the fact that their messages arrive at the same time that the network “report”.
I even forget to run pidgin, and still prefer the old fashion bulletin boards where you can answer in a couple hours and nobody’s nagging you.

It seems I will be “left behind”… This days even the toasters tweet, but I’ve never even registered at that.