Roll back the clock ten years. Imagine you wanted to know what what going on with one of your friends who lives far away. You'd call them or send an email. Maybe one of your other friends would relate a story. Most likely you wouldn't find yourself in the next aisle of the supermarket eavesdropping on a conversation. Something very similar is happening on Facebook and other social networks tonight.

As I have been doing for several weeks now, I will check my facebook page tonight to find conversations between my friends posted on their "walls". Unlike email, or even the relatively quiet conversation in a supermarket, these conversations are shouted at me. Big chunks of text call out to me and invite me to click to the "wall-to-wall" page for these two friends where I can read the entire conversation in reverse chronological order. It's clear these conversations are not explicitly intended for me to obvserve. There is no indication to the participants that I'm listening, unlike when I might walk up to two people talking at a party.

One theory holds that these are people entirely new to social networking and don't realize their conversation is out in the open. Facebook makes it easy to click to a friend's profile and start typing away. I have watched these conversations unfold rapidfire, exactly like you'd see in IM. Perhaps these people will realize they want more privacy and these conversations will disappear into IM or email.

My hope is that I'm seeing the beginning of people sharing their lives more openly. It's certainly entertaining me and making me feel closer to my friends.