That article struck me as a bit of an extreme and luddite take on the current social networking trend. VC is chasing social networking right now because consum

That article struck me as a bit of an extreme and luddite take on the current social networking trend. VC is chasing social networking right now because consumers are moving toward social networking vs other forms of entertainment. Some VC will make good guesses at the direction things are headed and make some money... some won't and will suffer the pain of being wrong. A lot of hype-sensitive VC will make the mistake of overplaying the social networking trend and that's a good weed-out mechanism in the economy of the Valley. It doesn't mean that funding for cancer drugs has stopped or even slowed down as a result. Even if you could attribute a slow-down of cancer funding to FB, it doesn't mean that funding for cancer drugs won't resurge and maybe increase after this trend subsides. Another thing to consider. The author mentioned Elon Musk as being one of the few sources of a "disruptive startup" in the last few years. Well where did Elon Musk get his money? Hint: not in the Space or Automotive industries. He is a brilliant guy who made money on the Internet then applied his problem solving skills and vision to other fields where he thought he could make a difference. Likewise, Facebook has converted a whole bunch of smart people into rich people in Silicon Valley. It's likely that some of them are going to take their money and apply it to new ideas in non-social-networking endeavors and we'll be referring to them years from now as innovators in those industries. Money flowing into Silicon Valley smart problem solvers is a good thing.