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> 1. Break up Facebook under anti-trust law. Social network share is as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than, market share. You should better ask why the m

> 1. Break up Facebook under anti-trust law. Social network share is as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than, market share. You should better ask why the mass of people registered on it to let this happen. It is not that privacy activists have not been warning all the time... To give a little background: In Germany (where there is a lot more concern for privacy) Facebook never got that deeply ingrained into the daily habits of most people. It is also not uncommon that at a social gathering people explicitly tell you that they don't desire that any photos that were taken here to be put on Facebook.

wsy 9y ago
> You should better ask why the mass of people registered on it to let this happen. Social networks gravitate towards oligopolies(+), because people go wherever everybody else is. Even in Germany, there is a social price to pay for not having a Facebook account. (+) Oligopolies, because there seems to be a age generation effect: children don't use the network where their parents are. This is one of the areas where self-regulation simply doesn't work.
- wolfgke 9y ago
  > Even in Germany, there is a social price to pay for not having a Facebook account. I often write here at HN that there is no "objective" status in society, but rather status in various, often vaguely defined groups in the society, where the individual status symbols can even contradict each other. It is not my impression that all in all I had to pay a social price for not having a Facebook account at any time (quite the opposite). Rather in some groups this lead to a social malus, but in other groups it gave a large social bonus.
  - wsy 9y ago
    I fully agree that this highly depends on the groups to which you belong. Personally, I have not experienced a malus for not having a Facebook account, but I know of occurrences (e.g., a student learning group organizing their communication via Facebook). For myself, I have faced a potential social price for not having a WhatsApp account that was large enough to let me create an account.

wsy 9y ago

> You should better ask why the mass of people registered on it to let this happen. Social networks gravitate towards oligopolies(+), because people go wherever everybody else is. Even in Germany, there is a social price to pay for not having a Facebook account. (+) Oligopolies, because there seems to be a age generation effect: children don't use the network where their parents are. This is one of the areas where self-regulation simply doesn't work.

wolfgke 9y ago
> Even in Germany, there is a social price to pay for not having a Facebook account. I often write here at HN that there is no "objective" status in society, but rather status in various, often vaguely defined groups in the society, where the individual status symbols can even contradict each other. It is not my impression that all in all I had to pay a social price for not having a Facebook account at any time (quite the opposite). Rather in some groups this lead to a social malus, but in other groups it gave a large social bonus.
- wsy 9y ago
  I fully agree that this highly depends on the groups to which you belong. Personally, I have not experienced a malus for not having a Facebook account, but I know of occurrences (e.g., a student learning group organizing their communication via Facebook). For myself, I have faced a potential social price for not having a WhatsApp account that was large enough to let me create an account.