>What value could possibly be extracted by such a person from being “on” Facebook? It seems silly to deny that people genuinely enjoy Facebook and find it usef

>What value could possibly be extracted by such a person from being “on” Facebook? It seems silly to deny that people genuinely enjoy Facebook and find it useful. It makes sense considering that Facebook has supplanted and absorbed many of the sites and software that people used to use - Flickr, ICQ/AIM, and vBulletin/phpbb for instance. I know a lot of people who share family photos on Facebook. I know many people who discuss topics ranging from gangstalking to glassblowing to autism. A lot of people share memes and humor and political discussion and people consume that content. Clearly people value FB for communication and entertainment. Messenger is also clearly with value for text chat, voice calls and video calls. Many artists I know have made a living from selling things for free on Facebook, with few restrictions and 100% less fees than Etsy and eBay (the market switched to Instagram ~4 years ago). Many advertisers get the majority of their leads from Facebook. Does the world need Facebook to do this? No, there are alternatives. But people clearly find it useful and it would be hard to support that the platform is without utility or value. Are you saying that the harm done by Facebook’s business practices exceeds the value of providing this for free to consumers?