Anyone who has come to believe that this is the Age of the Customer, has been lounging too long in the Reality Distortion Bubble that surrounds all things digital. The only empowerment that I see social network sites delivering is the empowerment to receive more focused marketing messages.
I have a Twitter account, and it has proven useful at times in being able to sample a diversity of opinions, and respond to the interesting ones. In terms of keeping me informed of pressing events or things of merit, I'd say it's pretty much a bust. I learn of some things of importance, but I also learn about more items of interest via email newsletters and visiting favorite websites. I will continue to use it, though, as an auxiliary to promote my own work; that seems to be the nature of the beast anymore.
Facebook, though, is going to have to go on without me. I have many friends on FB, my wife has her page on there as a marketing device for her writing, and I receive invitations all the time to get my own FB page. I waver, but ultimately decline, because I want to be in control of my time and my information, and FB just makes it too hard to insure that I maintain that control, tenuous as it is.
Honestly, if the social network phenomenon died tomorrow, I really doubt if I'd miss it.
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