The age of Facebook has come, and it’s hear to stay.

Tim Schmoyer says that teens will pass up Facebook in the next two years. I disagree. I think Facebook has a long, fairly secure life to look forward to. Here’s four reasons why:

Facebook creates “permanent” connections between friends. I say permanent because even if I moved to China, got a new cell phone number, and for some crazy reason got a new email address, my Facebook won’t change. In fact, I’ll go to my Facebook to update all my contact info so people can still find me.

This is especially valuable for up-and-coming young adults. Life after high school is all about change, but students can rest assure that their Facebook will always keep them connected.

Facebook’s popularity has made it a standard of online living. Everybody has a Facebook, and if you don’t have one, everybody tells you to get one. This makes all sorts of things much easier, like finding old friends.

I was trying to find someone that I hadn’t seen in more than 10 years. All I could remember was his first name was Michael and his last name started with L. So I searched Facebook for “Michael L.” And there he was. Because of our “mutual friends,” he showed up at the top of the list of thousands of other “Michael L’s”.

Facebook refines what people love, doesn’t throw a million crazy things at you. MySpace always looked cluttered to me. There was just too much happening on every MySpace page, and it was hard to figure out. Plus there was always confusing new features and crazy advertising flashing at you.

Facebook, on the other hand, has kept an extremely clean, user-friendly design. Instead of being over-the-top flashy and annoying with custom designs and colors, Facebook continues to stay simple and make it easier to do what people love. For example, the status message is one of Facebook’s most popular features. Many of Facebook’s recent improvements have been to make it easier to find and comment on your friend’s status messages.

Facebook makes it easier to do what their users already like to do. Instead of just predicting what will be popular next year (and trying to force it), they watch for what will be popular and make whatever “it” is better. This alone will help it last a long, long time.

People do Facebook together in real life, too. Facebook isn’t just about sitting at home alone in front of your computer. Friends often pull up Facebook together, usually to look at pictures. It’s becoming part of everyday life, not just online life.

What do you think? How long do you think Facebook will last?

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