I highly doubt there will be a major exodus of facebook anytime soon. It now appeals to a less finicky, older, more brand-faithful crowd than it used to do. I think the people in the NYT story that are abandoning it are either lacking in self-control, new to the web or merely inexperienced or too impatient to tweak facebook into what they want it to be. You don't have to connect to anyone you don't want to. You don't have to play games. You don't have to dress up your page with gadgets and fan items. You don't have to provide much more than your name. The alleged deserters strike me as people who would say “Damn. No one told me this crack was so addictive!”