• by laura , December 7, 2007

"You have a Zombie invitation." "You have a Jedi vs Sith invitation." "You have an advanced wall message."

If you are connected in any way to young people these days (or the media industry, for that matter) you know exactly what I am referring to: Facebook. It's the cocaine addiction of today's youth. I find myself checking it, not once, not twice, but countless times a day. And each time I vainly check my online self, I find a new "application."

An application, for those not enslaved to the online social network, is an add-on to your profile or home page. These add-ons allow you to play games, create artwork, or post videos. And how does one of today's youth, who has openly admitted she is addicted, feel about all these cutting edge bells and whistles? How does she feel about the new bling?

It's junk and it's a rip off of Myspace. If you want to play music look at skins and research bands, visit Myspace. The only thing anyone really cares about on the Facebook network are pictures, the wall (area to write to friends), videos, and birthday notifications. The rest of the junk? Throw it out the window. There is no need for a Jedi vs Sith battle on Facebook - you might as well go play on a gaming website.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Facebook and I'm fascinated by how quickly one can become addicted to the network. But there is absolutely no need for all this junk they have thrown on the network to try to make it look like Myspace. It will be a sad day when skins take over Facebook. Sigh.