Facebook, the world's biggest social networking website, is attempting to become the one-stop media hub for its 750 million users.
That is roughly what its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week at f8, Facebook's annual conference in San Francisco. Wait, then, for the whole issue of privacy to be dredged up again.
As the debate over what Facebook should reveal, or what Google shouldn't, gets going, the question arises: is there a choice anymore?
Haven't we given up all semblance of control to whatever media we choose to broadcast from or use? This is not a moral statement or a value judgement; it is a statement of fact.
Think about it. In the bygone days you hung out at the local temple, mosque, church or some other place where all communities gathered. That was what socialising was about.
Then as we "evolved", we would hang out at each other's houses, in a restaurant (if we had the money) or on the street outside.
Now you do it alone, online. In fact, in spite of a plethora of options - multiplexes, malls, leisure parks, bigger houses and so on - it is evident that young people, the favourite target group for media companies, love staring at a screen.
That is their idea of fun and games. That is their idea of meeting friends and chatting with them. And if they do meet friends in person, they do so to converge around some screen.
This could be a PC, laptop, TV, iPad, gaming console or a mobile screen, among others.
It is paradoxical. The media exploits our need for company, for sharing our little triumphs and disappointments.
It is about getting people together - whether to cheer a player in a game or kill aliens in another. But the media does this by making us more dependent on something that further isolates us from society.
So you have an entire generation of youngsters who find it impossible to meet your eye and say "good evening or hello". In all probability, they are studs online, strutting their ability for witty repartee or cool music.
What it means for media marketers is a massive headache as attention
id="div_arti_inline_advt">
spans shrink.