I keep waiting for the deluge. There comes a moment when, suddenly it will seem, that Facebook is no longer cool.

The moment has passed by before. Once upon a time, MySpace was the place. You had to have a MySpace page. Even I had one, but that was on the downside edge of the curve.

Before then, yea before social networking became a term, GeoCities was where you’d go to paint your corner of the web. Or, if you were more adept, you’d plant your flat in cyberspace by crafting your own home page.

Today, however, Facebook remains kind of the social networking roost. Everyone is there, even if, like my mother, they show up once a full moon.

The problem I see is that Facebook just can’t sustain its freshness. At some point, the kids will spontaneously declare that Facebook is no longer cool. Like the middle urinal, it will be the place where only the dorks go. That moment is fast approaching.

What I’m curious about, is what’s next. Of course, that’s always been the big question when it comes to computers or — to use the Big Picture Generic Term — our digital life.

Somewhere out there, amongst the dozens of Facebook wannabes, is the next king of the cyber village. It could be Reddit, Tumblr, or even Google Plus. But something is lurking in the wings, ready for legions of the cool kids to latch onto it “before it becomes cool.”

And that’s how I’m going to find it: I’m going to watch what the kids do.

For example, my 20-year-old enjoys 9gag. I think it’s a good time waster as well, although I can only take so much of it. Now 9gag can’t supplant Facebook, but it’s something I’m watching because it will be kids like my son who eventually find Facebook’s successor.

It’s possible that the Next Big Thing might not even be social networking. It could be something completely odd and unexpected . . . like reading a book! I can only hope.