Sam's Research Paper: The Final Nail In My Facebook Coffin

I would like to write my research paper on online social networking.
...
Oh, who am I kidding? I would like to write my paper on Facebook. It is, after all, an environment in which all of us except our buddy, Carl, exist. (And more power to you, my friend.) I understand that, realistically, I'll probably have to expand beyond Facebook as there is more literature to be found on online social networking in general. (In other words, Facebook and MySpace.) That will not change my main interest for the paper. In class discussion of more than one article, we have touched on Facebook as an ever present identifier of our generation, and I would like to identify and analyze its many effects on our culture. Clearly, communication among our generation is quite different from that of our parents, and online social networking has had a hand in the change. Is this a positive or negative difference between our generations? What about Nicholas Carr's questioning of Google: how has Facebook affected our focus? How does Facebook fit into the activity on a college campus? Can it be used positively or is it just the distraction that kept this post from going up Monday night instead of Thursday night?

The possibilities are endless. I've really briefly flipped through some articles on the topic and think there are a lot of effects to be explored. Facebook is a force to be reckoned with. Ideas/critiques/suggestions/[further synonyms for these words] welcome! :)