A reader writes:
I would really like someone to begin exploring the actual number of Facebook members, because many people have multiple accounts, and I am pretty sure the company reports each of these as separate, individual members. The company would have no way of knowing how many Facebook accounts a person has. I have four, which I use for four sets of friends that I don't want to mix into one big mess. And I know I'm not the only one. If that's true, then the actual number of Facebook users is far less than the reported number. The press shouldn't uncritically accept Facebook's claims. They need to be challenged to use terminology that makes it clear that the numbers they report are separate accounts, not individuals.
Another writes:
I think Libby Copeland's recent article in Slate about how Facebook can make us miserable is relevant to the decline in Facebook. Here is the key passage:
The human habit of overestimating other people's happiness is nothing new, of course. Jordan points to a quote by Montesquieu: "If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are."
But social networking may be making this tendency worse. Jordan's research doesn't look at Facebook explicitly, but if his conclusions are correct, it follows that the site would have a special power to make us sadder and lonelier. By showcasing the most witty, joyful, bullet-pointed versions of people's lives, and inviting constant comparisons in which we tend to see ourselves as the losers, Facebook appears to exploit an Achilles' heel of human nature. And women—an especially unhappy bunch of late—may be especially vulnerable to keeping up with what they imagine is the happiness of the Joneses.
The Dish 