> Facebook is where people... form support groups... Geez. I hope not. This brings up one a "hard question" we need to consider: discretion. Many categories

> Facebook is where people... form support groups... Geez. I hope not. This brings up one a "hard question" we need to consider: discretion. Many categories of communication are modeled really well by modern technology, including social networks. However, there is a real dearth of discretion-oriented communication available. Privacy concerns are obvious and being discussed, but we're not really discussing discretion as a healthy part of our lifestyles. Some things need to be shared, but only with particular people or groups. This is absolutely social communication but it's basically unaddressed by any social network I can think of. Group discussions that revolve around substance abuse, significant health issues, survivors of violent crimes, etc. Even less structured conversations with loved ones that are about sensitive issues: health problems, money problems, relationship problems, etc. And it's worth mentioning that these goals seem to be at odds with the goals of our governments (surveillance) and our social networks (data collection and mining). Whatsapp (closed source encryption aside) helps a bit for one-on-one communication or permanent groups (like families), but doesn't lend itself to the conversations you might have with a counselor, priest, spouse, or support group. It may be that "social networks" are entirely for public discourse, but they don't seem to be modeled that way, with "friends", "private" messaging, and so on. In the meantime, we have no real medium for this type of communication and I suspect it's actively hurting our culture and society.