"In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive."<p>OR they got bored and spammed to death such that they stopped using facebook. (My personal experience)
This "ambient awareness" thing is a phenomenon that exists only in the bay area... the rest of the world still lives in a twitbook free world. Maybe this article is slightly out of touch with whats really going on.<p>And why would you want to "constrain your identity"? The ability to revinvent yourself is a great gift.
See, I just use my twitter account for random nano-fiction. Same for more facebook profile. Far more interesting than what I normally do, which usually boils down to "Still haven't conquered world. Damn."<p>Also, it gives people a conversation starter with me, usually with the word "What the hell?" beginning it.
The way I use it is by not logging in at all. I've set it to email me on events, and I click the links in the mails. Other than occasionally looking at event pictures, I don't even look at Facebook pages.