In the Times, Virginia Heffernan reports (argues?) that there’s a mini-exodus of users away from Facebook.

Leif Harmsen, once a Facebook user, now crusades against it. ….“The more dependent we allow ourselves to become to something like Facebook — and Facebook does everything in its power to make you more dependent — the more Facebook can and does abuse us,” Harmsen explained by indignant e-mail. “It is not ‘your’ Facebook profile. It is Facebook’s profile about you.”

If people really are leaving Facebook, I suspect it’s an inevitable function of modern-day ADD, and that this quote has more explanatory power than the one above (although I think Harmsen is right, I’m just not sure that anyone cares about what he cares about).

Julie Klam, a writer and prolific and eloquent Facebook updater, said in her own e-mail message, “I have noticed the exodus, and I kind of feel like it’s kids getting tired of a new toy.”

Still, I think for most people Facebook will continue to prove useful. Why would you throw out your address book just because you know all the people in it?