Social-networking backlash?

Whoa. A young person deletes his account on a social site, telling the Associated Press the novelty had worn off and a "superficial emptiness" had set in. A sure sign he's thinking for himself and working through the risks and benefits. He's a 26-year-old graduate student. Across the campus at Iowa State University, a journalism professor suggests to the AP this is a sign of hope "that some members of the tech generation are starting to see the value of quality face time." He says social networking is reaching a "saturation point." I don't know. First, MySpace, the biggest social site, recently passed the 119 million-profile mark. Second, the number and frequency of press releases I get announcing new social sites are growing. Third, social-networking services are opening up shop in more and more countries – both homegrown services and US subsidiaries. Maybe this latest growth trend has to level off, but I'm not sure the professor is right about a general backlash yet. Certainly individual social networkers have reached the saturation point, and they have to be getting smarter about privacy and safety, with all the media reports on sexual predation. And if they're using a social site as a popularity contest, that'll get tiresome. But that's only one thing people use these sites for. Convenience tools for keeping in touch with friends will not lose their attraction, and then there's the rest of the spectrum of social and self-expression features these sites provide that reflect enduring interests (blogging, page-decorating, music-sharing, code writing, etc.). The AP quotes another grad student as saying she sees "faceless communication as a supplement to everyday interactions, not a replacement." That's more what I'm seeing than a downward trend. (See also "The embellishment biz" for the latest Nielsen/NetRatings numbers on teen social networking.)