So I have been reading the discussion between danah boyd and Robert Scoble regarding the tech/geek infatuation with Facebook even though Facebook does a lot "wrong" by the usual standards of the tech/geek crowd. I was thinking about writing a serious well thought out analysis of the situation. And then I realized there was no point to it.

The fact of the matter is that the tech/geek crowd of whom Robert is a high priest has just plain decided that Facebook is cool. Why? Who cares? Does it matter? It just is. Is it middle aged geeks trying to hold on to their youth? Maybe that is part of it but it hardly explains it all. No the fact is that cool requires no serious rational reason. And you really can't expect people to be consistent between what they say they they believe and how they act when it comes to being cool. I mean you can hope for it but expecting it often is too much.

Take a look at art (just to show that I know live outside of computers) for a minute. Let's pick on Jackson Pollock. His paintings are works of art. I know they are works of art because they are hanging in all the great galleries and buying one costs a mint. Recently some paintings were discovered that some say he painted and some say someone else did. Now here is the rub. If Pollock actually did them they are works of art and worth serious money. If he didn't do them they are worth very little and will likely not show up in any great galleries. Think about that for a minute. The only difference is who painted them. There is little to no intrinsic value beyond who painted them. There is a lot of geek stuff like that as well.

I would bet cash money that if you took an Apple designed product and put a Microsoft logo on it a lot of people who decry it as boring and blah. Then take a Microsoft designed product and put an Apple logo on it and the geek world would shout about it being new, innovative and cool.

Yeah ok it wouldn't work for everything. But I'll bet it would work with Microsoft computer mice or Tablet PCs. Had the iMacs come from Dell or Gateway or especially HP all we would have heard about was boring utilitarian packaging. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong.

Perception is a huge part of reality. Get enough of the right people to say something is cool and it is. Is a dance really great because it is great or is it great because people we have authorized to say what is great dancing are doing it? Are those clothes in fashion because the style is great or are they in fashion because "fashionable" people are wearing them? It's a chicken or egg sort of question but I believe people make things cool but cool things do not make people cool.

Facebook is cool because the cool kids are using it. Sure it has flaws (and Robert lays some of them out) but since Robert and his friends use it that makes it cool. My using it is probably all that is holding it back from completely taking over the world.