Gladwell is willing to take the long perspective when examining the potential of Facebook. Rather than jumping onto the Facebook is changing the world bandwagon, he places it in context of other platforms and services that have come before it. Here's what he has to say about Facebook,

" The problem is, we're still in the experimental phase. The thing about Facebook is, it's insanely new. This world of the Internet, if we know anything from its brief history, it likes nothing more than to build someone up only to topple them. Who has an AOL account these days? Not that long ago, AOL was the single most powerful player on the Internet. Who has a MySpace account these days? MySpace sold for billions of dollars not that long ago. I'm very reluctant to crown Facebook king of the future. They certainly are flavour of the month. This is not a world that respects loyalties and longevity.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Facebook and think it has significant potential beyond what it is today. And I believe it continues to make some extremely smart decisions that help it permeate our electronic lives more and more deeply. However, Gladwell does have a point. We don't have a strong history in aligning and staying aligned with specific brands or services online. The question is whether it will be different for Facebook. It could be but I don't know enough as yet to make that call. Will our children be using Facebook as much as we do? You tell me.