Facebook.

(Also included in my rant today are Myspace, Twitter, Blogger, etc. Facebook simply does it all better)

Facebook has drastically altered the social landscape for every generation to come. There are going to be (if there aren't already) dozens of books on the subject of pre-facebook social interaction vs post-facebook. It seems to me that it hasn't created new patterns so much as digitized the old ones.

A "rate your friends" application entirely usurps the position of the local gossip girl. Who's hotter? Who has better hair? Which one is dateable?

Facebook relationships are as easy as clicking a few boxes and agreeing. Facebook adds "Blank and Blank are now in a relationship" thus entirely replacing the need to hold hands or make out under the bleachers.

Super Poke and Poke are ways of letting others know you still exist with a low level of personal risk. This is relatively new. Its only counterpart in the real world is probably the quick glance from across the room.

Messages replace notes.

The biggest leap PostFaceSociety has made is how easy social interaction has become. It can be done in the routine of checking e-mail, updating a blog, and checking Facebook. I saw someone declare their love for someone on facebook today. It was just sitting there in my news wire. A deep emotional moment left out for all to see. Why this was not done in a message (or in person for that matter) is testament to how things have changed. The social voyeur and the social exhibitionist come out to play in droves online. People who flaunt and reek of their personal secrets, and people who stalk pages soaking up the trail of information left behind.

A predominantly myspace function is the "survey". Filled with ever more personal questions it embodies these two types of people. the voyeur reads all of them, and the exhibitionist fills all of them out.

There are probably enough ideas like this to expand upon and rant about to fill up hundreds of pages (or LCD screens) so I'll stop now.