• PSB or Facebook for Friends Status Checking
• Facebook Statistics and Studies
• Texting or IMing
• Social Network Tools

In order to make any sort of reasonable comparison between PSB™s and Facebook, we need to first take a quick peek at what it is we're talking about:

Be aware that a Personal Status Board (PSB™) could just as easily have many dozens of names/users rather than just a dozen. It is assumed, however, that you will only want to have the people you are closest to in your PSB™, so the example shown is realistic. We'll get back to the PSB™ vs Facebook comparison in the next section, but for now, just check out the following info, keeping in mind the two screenshots, above.

Facebook

Everyone knows that Facebook is the most popular social networking website. Most people check on the status of their friends using the Facebook News Feed when they are logged into Facebook, as well as writing about their own status or writing comments on others' statuses, videos, photos, links or events. Most people occasionally add new videos, photos, links or events on their own profile page—which others in their friends lists will thereby soon find out about. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on Facebook.

Is this genuine communication? Research indicates that, although there are plenty of people who use Facebook and other such sites to create false, inflated, or misleading profiles, in general, especially for adults, online social networking profiles convey pretty accurate images of profile owners, either because people aren't trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off. So online social networks are not so much about providing positive spin about yourself (which so many assume) as just another way to engage in genuine social interactions—like the telephone or f2f talking.

Is this genuinely meaningful communication? Since most f2f communication with friends is about gossip, news, events, movies, videos, music, or work, one can assume that Facebook relations and f2f and voice telephoning communications are all the same in the meaning department. More intense communications happen mostly with approximately 3 other people in one's life, usually one at a time, and although this can be via phone call, it's likely to be f2f where possible. Facebook wants to become the planet’s standardized communication platform, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But perhaps there are limits to Facebook's capabilities, if not its aspirations.

The purpose of these online communities such as Facebook is to reinforce established friendships and form bonds with new friends, based on the premise that you’re more likely to want to get to know people who know people you already know than all-out strangers. But what having a lot of weak-tie relationships is giving people access to is a lot of resources that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Although many people use Facebook for certain types of family communication, such as recognition of birthday, anniversary, or graduation events—or even good grades or awards, research has established that most people use it to relate to nonfamily friends most of the time.

The majority of college students on any given day are spending between one and five hours on the Internet with over 96% of them accessing it from the comfort of their residence hall room. Of this time, up to one hour of time may be spent engaging in Facebook. The highest area for use on Facebook is staying connected to high school friends. One would expect more people using Facebook to connect to college peers; however a very small percentage (21.1%) are using it for this purpose. The higher the use of Facebook the more connected they feel to the people online. Heavy Facebook use tends to be seen in students with a lower GPA.

A frequency of use of Facebook study found that 73% of 18-24 year olds access Facebook several times a day, but only 40% of 25-34 year olds access Facebook several times a day, and only 38% of 35-44 year olds but 58% of 45-54 year olds access Facebook several times a day. People who didn't use the site several times a day usually accessed it once a day or several times a week. Females use Facebook a bit oftener than males, especially in the "several times a day" area. Among at home moms and working moms, 30%-40% check Facebook several times daily. Studies have also shown that most people go to Facebook to relate to friends, although nearly a fifth frequently go to Facebook to relate to family, while over half sometimes go to Facebook to relate to family.

Facebook's Status Update feature was replaced in 2009 with a box providing more functionality and posing the question “What’s on Your Mind?” Since writing comments on others' statuses, videos, photos, links or events is not a Status Update, nor is posting videos, photos, links or events, this more open-ended question better fit users' actual reason to be on Facebook.

Think about what happens on Facebook. Let's say you have 200 friends. When you hit your Facebook account it has to go gather the status of all 200 of your friends at the same time so you can see what's new for them. That means 200 requests need to go out simultaneously, the replies need to be merged together, other services need to be contacted to get more details, and all this needs to be collected together and sent through PHP and a web server so you see your Facebook page in a reasonable amount of time. What if there are 100 million people on Facebook at one time? Those programmers and servers really have their work cut out for them!

But what about PSB™s?

If you live in a Microcommunity (read sidebar), you already know why a PSB™ is an essential communication tool. If you don't understand this, see this website. Play with this PSB™ demo, read through the 100 status codes, and compare this to any other social networking app or tool. Facebook has tons of features and capabilities PSB™s do not have. But as you saw when you checked out the above link, the ONLY social networking tool that gives you an efficient, concise, holistic view of everyone's statuses at once, a view that can be perused in a few seconds, allowing you to focus on and respond to immediately relevant statuses without delay is the Personal Status Board (PSB™).

Many individuals like sharing their whereabouts and status updates with Facebook or Twitter "microblogging," which can go out to their entire friends list if they want. But even though this is efficient, it's a one-way efficiency. Users can check their News Feed to see the latest statuses, videos, photos, links or events of their friends, but this involves looking through a long list of thumbnails of videos, photos, links or events and the user rarely gets any of the type of status info that PSB™s feature prominently, such as needing alone time, needing help with something, needing nurturing, available to tutor, available to provide nurturing, need a ride, need pet caretaker, need care—am ill, need active listening, exercising, want advice, will advise, and many emotional statuses such as lonely, depressed, or all is well. Even general statuses like sleeping, thinking, studying, shopping, and in a meeting are unlikely to be found except as rare occurences in Facebook.

Although the chat, IM, texting, and other Facebook features can deal with a few immediate statuses, these are almost always between two people. When group chats occur, there is no efficient holistic view of everyone's status at once, a view that can be perused in a few seconds, allowing you to focus on and respond to immediately relevant statuses without delay, which is what PSBs offer. There is mostly self-conscious babbling and emoticons. However fun, entertaining, or exciting this may be, neither group chat nor News Feed checking nor texting will provide the user with anything remotely as efficient and concise and useful as a Personal Status Board (PSB™).

Facebook and PSB™s both offer a feeling of connectedness that lets users check out what their friends and family (or microcommunity) are doing to the degree users choose to divulge this information. Perusing Facebook pages, one is immediately confronted with the evidence that most Facebook users choose mostly to share comments, videos, photos, links or events and the users rarely get any of the type of status info that PSBs feature. Mobile or land phone texting and voice calls are the usual basic communication method for most Internet savvy people to reach out to friends and family about schedules, logistics, rides, plans, etc., not Facebook. Of course, gossip, discussions, photo sharing, feelings, all occur on phones as well.

But studies have shown that about one in five students are "hyper-texters," sending at least 120 text messages a day. Hypertexters are more likely to be susceptible to peer pressure than people texting with more reasonable frequency, or to have permissive or absent parents. Hyper-texting is more common among children from single parent families and those whose parents have less education, according to researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Some young people use Facebook and IMing in a similarly excessive fashion. These types of abuses are often replacements for healthy family relationships and symptomize social and/or psychological dysfunctions of various types.

PSB™-using Microcommunities (read sidebar) are the exact opposite of this situation of inadequate social resources and weak parenting skills. They are optimal, resource-rich, strong-tie social environments where communication often relates to helping, nurturing, advising, tutoring, and childcare, although those involved will obviously indulge in sharing of comments, videos, photos, links or events on Facebook and other sites. These types of activities are also a positive part of life, if not overdone.