[LINK] "Why Facebook is losing its cool"

[rfmcdonald]

Sheena Goodyear wonders when too much Facebook is too much.

The last time I talked to my grandmother on the phone, she amended her usual I-love-you-goodbye sign-off to include: "And stop swearing in your Facebook status; it's not nice!"

The next time I informed my 561 online friends that I had come across a man having an intimate moment with himself on a front lawn in Bloor West Village, I paused. Would this anecdote, intended for my peers, spark panic in my grandmother, curiosity in my 11-year-old cousins, and abhorrence in my professional superiors?

Then it struck me: At some point between its college-kids-only inception and its entrenchment as a tool of necessity, Facebook became more burden than pastime.

I thought the unthinkable – maybe I'll quit. But, can a young woman survive without her daily dose of social networking?

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that a good dose of common sense--i.e. write restrainedly and know your audience--solves most of social networking's challenges.