It's these comments that get a little old. Yes, obviously Facebook wants to make more money, and they do that by selling your information to advertisers. Thanks for the reminder. At the same time, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Facebook has enriched the lives of millions of people. I know it has allowed me to stay in touch with family and friends who I otherwise would probably speak to more rarely. That's meaningful to me.
I'm also tired of the "why don't you go out and have a REAL conversation" comments. I would love to have lunch with the friends I keep in touch with primarily on Facebook. Unfortunately, they live halfway across the country, so it's not that easy.
Just because the interactions happen online doesn't mean they're not real or meaningful. The fact that your comment on an online forum suggests otherwise is particularly rich.
Honestly, it's these predictable replies that are even older.
>Facebook has enriched the lives of millions of people
Right. So, not saying Facebook has no utility. Yes, we know it serves a purpose for a lot of people. Clearly.
>it has allowed me to stay in touch with family and friends who I otherwise would probably speak to more rarely.
Yes, we also know that's the number one use case, which serves as Facebook's crowning contribution to humanity. I won't argue what it means to you or anyone else personally. I do think it replaces more meaningful interaction with a relatively superficial pub/sub model. I also believe that it isolates people and I am aware of studies which have indicated the same. That you and others find some value in it doesn't make it a net positive for society, or even for you for that matter. But, that's really not my argument anyway.
>they live halfway across the country, so it's not that easy.
Well, you could call them and invest some one-on-one time if they were meaningful relationships but, in any case, I am referring more to the overall tendancy of people to marginalize an increasing number of relationships (even local) to a pub/sub tool like Facebook. But, really, I am objecting more to this never-ending devaluing of relationships by Facebook whose motive is to capture your social activity (relationships) by any means necessary, irrespective of the actual value-add (or subtract) to those relationships.
Of course we all know that their purpose is to make money. I wasn't dropping that as a great revelation. My point is that it should and does matter that we give so much of our relationships over to a company whose interests may run orthogonal to the preservation of value in those relationships.
>The fact that your comment on an online forum suggests otherwise is particularly rich.
I'm also tired of the "why don't you go out and have a REAL conversation" comments. I would love to have lunch with the friends I keep in touch with primarily on Facebook. Unfortunately, they live halfway across the country, so it's not that easy.
Just because the interactions happen online doesn't mean they're not real or meaningful. The fact that your comment on an online forum suggests otherwise is particularly rich.