Take a little time and read Chris Clark’s essay, Crotchety Old Power Users, and think about it for a minute. Chris’s argument is that Facebook “solves” email for the current generation of users – it cuts out spam and viruses, and makes electronic communication a “low friction” medium. I can see where he’s coming from, but I must say, I wholeheartedly disagree with his conclusion:

These are the people who complain that an iPad can’t have third party software installed from anywhere but the App Store, ignoring the massive convenience and security gains the policy affords average users. These are the people who are still using slotted screwdrivers and Edison light fixtures and manual transmission cars.

I don’t complain about the application model that iOS presents – I think it’s the next computer for “the re st of us.” However, I still use slotted screwdrivers to do many things like opening paint cans, prying plastic packaging off of children’s toys, and gasp tightening screws. I personally like the quality of the light an incandescent bulb produces, but am not opposed to compact fluorescents – most of the lights in our house are CFLs. And I certainly think a manual transmission car is cheaper to repair, gets better gas milage, and makes a driver know more about how a car operates. Perhaps this is Chris’s point: the average user shouldn’t know how the technology in his or her life works?

My problem with this is my problem with Facebook Messages (and a lot of other vertically integrated social media stacks) is that once you decide to use Facebook Messages for your primary “email-like” tool, you are no longer able to communicate with people who don’t use Facebook. You can’t run your own Facebook server, you can’t give account create ability to the IT staff at your office, and you can’t easily get out of Facebook. Let’s say, 10 years from now, Facebook has fallen on hard times, like Friendster or MySpace did. There is no local archive of the messages – so once the service goes under, all those messages are gone. Forever.

You also hand over even more information to the staff of Facebook, who are masters at mining the “social graph” to know everything there is to know about you. People are already starting to be leery of Google’s nearly omniscient presence – Facebook would be about ten times as scary.

If you want to replace email – fine, replace it. But suggest something that’s better, not something that sucks out loud so badly.