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>These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? Just because something is well liked, does not mean it i

>These services are so useful and well-liked around the world that they should be considered a threat? Just because something is well liked, does not mean it is beneficial to society overall. Junk food and facebook come too mind. I love Netflix but part of me feels my life would be better without it too.

criley2 10y ago
Facebook is beneficial to society, it has dramatically changed how people organize and communicate. You can always tell the difference between facebook users and non facebook users now. The non-facebook users don't hang out as much and don't show up to group events as much. "Why wasn't I invited?" "I hit everyone in the FB invites" "Oh I don't have facebook" "You're not using the tool our entire social group uses to organize our social experience-- there's your answer"
- hellbanner 10y ago
  Have you considered the "non-facebook users" coordinate offline, in-person and can use other technologies like SMS, email, phone calls, IM, chat apps, running into friends at the store, visiting a friend's workplace and "passing the word along" telling friend A who tells friend B?
  - DominikR 10y ago
    Your examples aside from chat apps are quite unrealistic. I don't even know when was the last time I invited someone to an event using any of the listed methods, it must have been years. But even if running into friends at the store was a thing, it doesn't mean that Facebook is not used by a billion people for organising social events and is therefore beneficial to them.
    - arcticfox 10y ago
      Wild, I just got invited to join a group for coffee over SMS. And before that, to meet with a technical group on MeetUp. And before that to meet up with my friends on GroupMe.
      - DominikR 10y ago
        See my above comment to hellbanner. Aside from that MeetUp and GroupMe are social networks too. Yes, they are different but I didn't say that Facebook is the end all perfect implementation of a social network. I just refuse anyone telling me that Facebook isn't beneficial without very good proof, because it is to me and to my social circle.
    - hellbanner 10y ago
      Human population of this planet is over 7 billion. I referred to non-facebook users Unrealistic for you and the other billion facebook users perhaps, yes. Different people use different methods of communicating.
      - DominikR 10y ago
        Well even if 6 billion use emails, it is no proof that Facebook is not beneficial to the others. It is at least to me and to the parent.
    - nostrademons 10y ago
      Pretty much all my invites go out over e-mail. Some of my Googler friends use Google+, but even that gets received via e-mail. Almost all my friends are on Facebook, but about half don't check it with any regularity, so sending an invite via Facebook means a good chance that they won't get it until after the event.
  - criley2 10y ago
    "and can use other technologies" The fact that they are not using these technologies to stay in touch after choosing to eschew the primary technology demonstrates reality. It's not my job to cater to every individual persons tech interests. If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. If you don't want to own a car, that's fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of a car. These are personal decisions here. Conformity is disliked but presents great benefit to social cohesion. If you're a nonconformist, you don't get to have your cake and eat it. You have to deal with negative side effects of non-conformity. They're welcome to use secondary technologies to communicate and stay in touch, but in practice, it takes dramatically more effort and brain space to do this, and as a result, they do not accomplish their goal
    - wolfgke 10y ago
      > If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. But I can complain that Facebook has to abide the European data privacy acts since Facebook operates under Facebook Ltd. as an Irish company.
      - criley2 10y ago
        >I can complain about something totally unrelated to a conversation of people being unwilling to use Facebook and expecting everyone to cater to them OK yeah you can :)
- CPLX 10y ago
  > Facebook is beneficial to society Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. That argument hardly obvious enough to take on faith however, the concepts of "widely used, willingly" and "beneficial to society" do not have a 1:1 relationship.
  - criley2 10y ago
    >Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Haha, the philosopher arrives. OK: Is civilization beneficial to society? Was stopping hunting/gathering and loading ourselves up with long work hours and unhealthy civilization-required carb diets beneficial? If you want to play the game of philosophy like this then we can just as easily argue that electricity, the internet, the internal combustion engine, coal-derived electricity, splitting the atom, computers in general, the Green Revolution of agricultural modification, all of this isn't beneficial. But, if we dive under the clouds and use a bit more grounded definition of benefit, it becomes much harder to dismiss the benefit of real utility.
  - deleted 10y ago
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deleted 10y ago
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humanrebar 10y ago
> Just because something is well liked, does not mean it is beneficial to society overall. Granted, but who gets to decide what is beneficial?
- dougmany 10y ago
  It is decided by a slow and deliberate process with many voices.
  - zepto 10y ago
    Slow maybe, but are you sure it is deliberate?
- ComodoHacker 10y ago
  Time and history.

criley2 10y ago

Facebook is beneficial to society, it has dramatically changed how people organize and communicate. You can always tell the difference between facebook users and non facebook users now. The non-facebook users don't hang out as much and don't show up to group events as much. "Why wasn't I invited?" "I hit everyone in the FB invites" "Oh I don't have facebook" "You're not using the tool our entire social group uses to organize our social experience-- there's your answer"

hellbanner 10y ago
Have you considered the "non-facebook users" coordinate offline, in-person and can use other technologies like SMS, email, phone calls, IM, chat apps, running into friends at the store, visiting a friend's workplace and "passing the word along" telling friend A who tells friend B?
- DominikR 10y ago
  Your examples aside from chat apps are quite unrealistic. I don't even know when was the last time I invited someone to an event using any of the listed methods, it must have been years. But even if running into friends at the store was a thing, it doesn't mean that Facebook is not used by a billion people for organising social events and is therefore beneficial to them.
  - arcticfox 10y ago
    Wild, I just got invited to join a group for coffee over SMS. And before that, to meet with a technical group on MeetUp. And before that to meet up with my friends on GroupMe.
    - DominikR 10y ago
      See my above comment to hellbanner. Aside from that MeetUp and GroupMe are social networks too. Yes, they are different but I didn't say that Facebook is the end all perfect implementation of a social network. I just refuse anyone telling me that Facebook isn't beneficial without very good proof, because it is to me and to my social circle.
  - hellbanner 10y ago
    Human population of this planet is over 7 billion. I referred to non-facebook users Unrealistic for you and the other billion facebook users perhaps, yes. Different people use different methods of communicating.
    - DominikR 10y ago
      Well even if 6 billion use emails, it is no proof that Facebook is not beneficial to the others. It is at least to me and to the parent.
  - nostrademons 10y ago
    Pretty much all my invites go out over e-mail. Some of my Googler friends use Google+, but even that gets received via e-mail. Almost all my friends are on Facebook, but about half don't check it with any regularity, so sending an invite via Facebook means a good chance that they won't get it until after the event.
- criley2 10y ago
  "and can use other technologies" The fact that they are not using these technologies to stay in touch after choosing to eschew the primary technology demonstrates reality. It's not my job to cater to every individual persons tech interests. If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. If you don't want to own a car, that's fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of a car. These are personal decisions here. Conformity is disliked but presents great benefit to social cohesion. If you're a nonconformist, you don't get to have your cake and eat it. You have to deal with negative side effects of non-conformity. They're welcome to use secondary technologies to communicate and stay in touch, but in practice, it takes dramatically more effort and brain space to do this, and as a result, they do not accomplish their goal
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    > If you don't want to use Facebook, thats fine, but you cannot complain when you don't get the benefit of Facebook. But I can complain that Facebook has to abide the European data privacy acts since Facebook operates under Facebook Ltd. as an Irish company.
    - criley2 10y ago
      >I can complain about something totally unrelated to a conversation of people being unwilling to use Facebook and expecting everyone to cater to them OK yeah you can :)
CPLX 10y ago
> Facebook is beneficial to society Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. That argument hardly obvious enough to take on faith however, the concepts of "widely used, willingly" and "beneficial to society" do not have a 1:1 relationship.
- criley2 10y ago
  >Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Haha, the philosopher arrives. OK: Is civilization beneficial to society? Was stopping hunting/gathering and loading ourselves up with long work hours and unhealthy civilization-required carb diets beneficial? If you want to play the game of philosophy like this then we can just as easily argue that electricity, the internet, the internal combustion engine, coal-derived electricity, splitting the atom, computers in general, the Green Revolution of agricultural modification, all of this isn't beneficial. But, if we dive under the clouds and use a bit more grounded definition of benefit, it becomes much harder to dismiss the benefit of real utility.
- deleted 10y ago
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deleted 10y ago

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humanrebar 10y ago

> Just because something is well liked, does not mean it is beneficial to society overall. Granted, but who gets to decide what is beneficial?

dougmany 10y ago
It is decided by a slow and deliberate process with many voices.
- zepto 10y ago
  Slow maybe, but are you sure it is deliberate?
ComodoHacker 10y ago
Time and history.