Facebook, Malls and Greens

I like Matt's thoughts on Facebook, especially his comparison of Facebook being most like a mall. I had never really thought of the site in this manner but given the time and consideration, I'm surprised at how much those ads seem to grab my attention. Now, I don't necessarily click on them but they certainly divert my eye at times when I'm clicking through the site. However, I'm not sure that the mall and town green need to be mutually exclusive or in some respects, if they are even inseperable today.

As society has become increasingly materialistic, the mall has become the defacto meeting place for people of all ages for all reasons. Some get together specifically to shop for a certain item. Others, to shop for the sake of shopping. Others (I'm thinking teens here) seem to get together at malls just because it's a place to get together and hang out. My friends and I did it as teens as the prospect and idea of walking around a mall seemed far better than sitting in a basement.

I can't remember the last time, if ever, my friends have ever decided to get together at a town green (and I lived in Boston for a couple of years, decidedly underutilizing the Common). This wasn't due to any aversion to the outdoors (as a group, we're fairly adventurous) or really, anything specific. However, we would go to the mall in order to shop, eat, get out of the house. My question is then, has the mall become the new town green? Does the Facebook-as-mall idea change the site's intent or potential at all? I'm not so sure. If people are now using the the more capitalistic mall instead of the town green to meet, who's to say that Facebook can't do the same?