Facebook's memberships number more each day. Facebook has ceased to be what we think of as an "optional" service: it is optional in the same sense as cooperating with any other major aspect of society, including universities and corporations: you may choose not to use Facebook, but you will suffer as a result of your inability to interact with others through that medium as you would suffer from electing not to use any other aspect of society; the social consequences of avoiding Facebook usage are quick to accumulate.

Facebook has begun allowing third-party "applications," essentially small applets that are placed on a user's profile. The applets initially seemed well-intentioned: some of them were even downright fun. Who doesn't want to use the "Graffiti" application to doodle a chipmunk on someone's "Graffiti Wall?". Nobody, that's who. The applications turned sour quickly. The fact that anybody was capable of developing the applications allowed corporations to develop applications that, while somewhat entertaining, served as little more than advertising. Our acceptance of Facebook's applications shows them that we are docile and will continue to use Facebook regardless of how many useless features they bombard us with: they are too invaluable of a service to abandon. Our Facebook profiles, initially a near-uniform medium by which a user could be described, turned into a cesspool of corporate interests and flashing banners to the unquestioning tolerance of their members.

Facebook also implemented a "Marketplace" feature analogous to services such as Craigslist. The service is currently free, but we cannot expect this to be the case for long. Eventually, the "Marketplace" will begin to charge fees for postings, either fixed or proportional to the money generated through the sale, in a similar fashion to eBay. While this will decrease the overall use of the feature, it will nonetheless generate massive revenue for Facebook. This, along with the revenue Facebook generates from companies eager to advertise, create a massive pool of money in Facebook's hands, allowing them to become a strong competitor of eBay and the like, if not to completely overtake them.

This will not, however, be even a cent on the fortune that Facebook will later possess.

Facebook has become an important aspect of human communication for all those with connections to the Internet. Think about what Facebook allows us to do in terms of interaction compared to what was available in pre-Internet civilization: Facebook adds an entire array of tools for interaction. Instead of being able to only communicate with people, we can now create artwork for them for free, throw virtual sheep at them, poke them digitally, and give them an nearly infinite number of immaterial gifts, among countless other things. These tools are, in a way, invaluable. They create an appeal to Facebook that is too hard for many to resist. Not only is this frightening, it has harrowing implications on all other online communities: Facebook has already, through its "applications," allowed other communities to merge into it. Everything2 itself has created a Facebook application where one can display their recent nodes and the like (I have already begun to see noders using this feature), and we all know that everything2 has very little connection with the rest of the Internet. If a community so isolated as everything2 can submit to Facebook, how can those communities more popular and interconnected even stand a chance? Facebook will eat the Internet, likely to be the largest wealth of information in existence. Facebook will have a near-total monopoly on information. Rebellion is impossible.

It is not unreasonable to expect other corporations to take advantage of the monster Facebook is becoming. We will have the option, for instance, to add the third party McDonald's ordering application on your profile, which will allow us, without getting out of our chairs, to have McDonald's delivered directly to us. Facebook's shares in all organizations, private and even, god forbid, public, will expand and expand tirelessly by this process. Facebook will be an ever-increasing source of income for these companies, essentially being so large a source of revenue for them that the companies cannot exist without the great protectorate of Facebook ensuring that they do.

Those who control the means of production control society. It's that simple. Without goods, we cannot live: Facebook, becoming the indestructible medium for the supply of goods, will have the most important power of a government: the power to coerce its constituents by threatening to withhold all goods from them. This is absolute power, nearly incontestable power, and with the ability to suppress rebellions, it will be impossible to defeat them.

Facebook, with the power to coerce its users and even those who choose not to use it (who will be analogous to the hermits of today), will have the ability not only to legislate over its users, but potentially over all people. The roots that Facebook will have dug into all aspects of society will be far too strong to break. Facebook will merge with the United Nations, and will compel all countries that aren't yet a member of the United Nations to submit to its awesome wrath. Facebook will control the world.

Facebook has proven already that it is not a benevolent power: their terms of service explicitly state that Facebook has the rights to all content posted on its site as long as that content is posted on the site. Facebook has the legal ability to extract information about its users from any source and have full control over such information. They do not care about their users. Thus, Facebook will enslave us all, forcing us to work in mines to power its Great Server, a massive tower emitting equally massive amounts of radiation to the entire world, except for Facebook's corporate offices, which happen to be encased in several miles of concrete. We will mutate into a sub-race of mine-people, so weak and mindless that we have no chance of ever rebelling, while Facebook reaps profits, their maniacal laughs echoing deep into the mine shafts.