“Calling Facebook a big social experiment implies that the network opens up new possibilities for the service’s users to change society, when in fact those opportunities rest with the site’s administrators and the minions who can access the whose of the data trove. Rather than crack society open and make it open to experiment, it helps preserve existing social relations and make them more supple and instrumental for those who already are in power. This really shouldn’t be news to anyone: Facebook is not an experiment; it’s a jail.”

From: http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/marginal-utility/facebook-as-experiment/