I agree with this and don't use Facebook. Monitoring my own misgivings however I've noticed that there is a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater .

I agree with this and don't use Facebook. Monitoring my own misgivings however I've noticed that there is a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater ... So much of our most trenchant criticisms of Facebook stem from how it's an illusion and that's not rooted in reality. Zuckerberg seems to be trying to reattach its moorings, talking about these real-world communities that give us a sense of purpose and meaning and that Facebook complements rather than replaces or distorts. Unfortunately his status as a billionaire undermines this argument. We're intellectually (if not actually) very skeptical of illusions (e.g. Plato's allegory of the cave) and view his net-worth being directly proportional to his malign influence in our society, pulling the wool over our eyes with an addictive illusion while voraciously funneling our private information into vast data-centers where AI is trained to new heights of persuasiveness... But I think it is possible to rehabilitate Facebook's illusory component and get something useful out of it. After all it has been instrumental in some major movements across the globe, including the election of Trump and subsequent protests. I've written about it here: https://iainmait.land/posts/20170201-transitional-object.html https://iainmait.land/posts/20170201-transitional-object.htm... It's a bit like MZ's approach ... while also acknowledging OP's final point, that Facebook will never willingly optimize for dis-engagement.