The whole 30-set has just joined Facebook in the past few months

I am a media junkie.

I love viewing popular trends and movements in history from a Media & Technology standpoint. The Beatles, I would argue, were not just a talented rock band, but also a by-product of television. There was a mythic quality to many of these 60's icons that I believe will never happen again (No one will be saying that "Eddie Vedder is Dead" based on a Pearl Jam album cover, for example). With every new media, there is a cresting of sorts where popular culture is profoundly affected - and the ideas or personas riding that wave are catapulted exponentially into our public consciousness. The Beatles probably deserve their status, Vanilla Ice, maybe not so much.

When I started my podcast Bowed Radio, I latched onto MySpace as a means to connecting with musicians to contribute to my show. For anyone trying to network with musicians, MySpace is unparalleled in its usefulness. But not long after my show started to rise in popularity, many of the show's fans wanted to network with me - and that was my first experience with Facebook.

At that time, most Facebook users were either in college or recent college grads. As a result, most of my Facebook friends were much younger - and again, mostly music people. But something interesting has just happened in the past six months. Suddenly, the whole 30-set is on Facebook - and all of them suddenly connected, enmeshed, entrenched, and interracting - and this interests me very much.

Why now? What took us so long? Why so suddenly? Was it the presidential election? I am intrigued.

Mark Allender
email: zzz@uu.cx
web: http://uu.cx/
skype: mark.allender