There Is No Next Facebook ⇥

Alex Madrigal, for The Atlantic:

We tend to think of social networks in terms of lifecycles. One rises and flourishes, then it is killed off by an insurgent competitor. We draw neat diagrams showing MySpace started to die as Facebook sprang to life, etc.

But the reality is more complex. The social applications out there now build atop each other and tens of millions of people belong to several networks, even if they don’t really notice.

Different social networks can exist at the same time, just like different operating systems. The trick is what the user gains from each.