Facebook is being described as many things today, as pundits, marketers, social scientists and educators try to get a handle of what’s going on in this space. Is it the ‘”connective tissue,” or a “social graph,” a resume, or a utility?

New York Times Op-Ed writer Alice Mathias has a different take on all of this, dismissing it as an place that encourages performances and escapism –a time-sucking hangout of the “Fakebook Generation.” Here is how she describes it:

I’ve always thought of Facebook as online community theater. In costumes we customize in a backstage makeup room — the Edit Profile page, where we can add a few Favorite Books or touch up our About Me section — we deliver our lines on the very public stage of friends’ walls or photo albums. And because every time we join a network, post a link or make another friend it’s immediately made visible to others via the News Feed, every Facebook act is a soliloquy to our anonymous audience.

I know we instinctively want to challenge this notion. But wait. Mathias is not some angry pundit –she’s a grad student who’s grown up on the thing. She makes a solid point that’s worth addressing: Networks like FB, she says, make us miss other valuable parts of human interaction. “Dwelling online is a cowardly and utterly enjoyable alternative to real interaction.”

“People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff—more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: “If we can just add enough of [today’s hot topping], everything will take care of itself.”

Seth Godin on Meatball Mondae, a weekly post about Meatball Sundae, a book on making wise new media choices that will be published in December.

“Guantánamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.”

Thomas Friedman, on why the US should start exporting hope, not fear.

“Demographics are what media is bought by and what media properties define themselves by … targeting by customer passion rather than demographics can make your marketing messages more relevant.”

Rohit Bhargava, on the need to think outside the demographic.

“The advertising industry can only benefit from an image that’s a lot less country club and a little more Facebook.”

Editorial in Advertising Age, on why the just concluded Advertising Week showcasing veterans, mascots and luminaries has hit a wall.

If all you’ve been hearing lately (even here!) is news about Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia, it’s about time to mention some alternatives I’ve been tracking.

Citizendium: a wiki for people who can’t stand the rules of engagement established by Wikipedia’s founders about NPOV or” neutral point of view.” This alternative doesn’t let people use pseudonyms such as “WizardDuck,” and welcomes the general public and experts –meaning those who represent organizations, including professional communicators, PR agencies etc. It has lofty goals, to “soon attempt to unseat Wikipedia.”

Mahalo: The human-powered search engine as it calls itself. “Say goodbye to spam, mediocre content and deceptive sites,” it says, taking a thinly-disguised whack at Google. Search results are built in a “greenhouse” where style guides and part-time guides manage content.

One more alternative if you’re thinking about creating your own Wiki.

WikiSpaces: Despite the goofy logo, it’s an easy to create wiki for any personal project. Just like PBWiki, and Wetpaint, but with a lot more intuitive functions.

AdAge has given this blog a 362 ranking in its Power 150 top media and marketing blogs.

ValleyPRBlog is also ranked!

“And it’s true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality.
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.”

Journalism in the age of social media has moved along at a fast clip since, say, blog reporting after the tsunami of 2004. The news this week out of Burma of the beatings, protests and killing of the Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai (yesterday) have all been captured and transmitted via social media at an amazing pace.

Yesterday, I noted the appearance of a Facebook protest group (grown since by more than 500 members.) Today, there is a BBC report on YouTube, that is available on several blogs, and online newspapers capturing the horrible shooting of Mr. Nagai.

There’s a Flickr image where people have posted comments and links to the video and news reports –one uses the U2 lyrics above.

And the best instance of citizen journalism out of Burma is this blog, where the author is uploading images probably taken on a mobile phone, with commentary. A word of caution: some images are graphic.

The person is obviously risking his/her life to do this, using a proxy server. Today’s message: “Now the internet is back but it is difficult to use proxy server.” On the right side of the blog, a text chat area has someone imploring another to “pls tell my brother who can use internet , abt not to enter blogger page without bypass, i think they r tacking who use those websites.”

YouTube. Flickr. Blogs. Proxy servers. Traditional media. Cell phone photo-journalism and people taking a lot of risk to get information out. That in spite of the age old tactic, the media censorship.