“I don’t believe that [Facebook] has brought us closer together. I think it’s pushed us farther apart.’’ —Aaron Sorkin, Scriptwriter, The Social Network

“The whole premise of the site is that everything is more valuable when you have context about what your friends are doing. That’s true for ads as well. An advertiser can produce the best creative ad in the world, but knowing your friends really love drinking Coke is the best endorsement for Coke you can possibly get.” —Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

“There is too much clutter … because we’ve branded ourselves to death… [Consumers] no longer want to be spammed with information about a product, service, or experience; they want to feel a connection to it… People need a reason to purchase, to be part of something bigger, to join a tribe.”–Seth Godin, (MIXX Conference, September 27, 2010)

Update: “The evangelists of social media… seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that signing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same sense as sitting at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960… Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro.” –Malcolm Gladwell, “Small Change,” The New Yorker, October 4, 2010