Facebook is worth much less to its users than search and email, but it keeps a larger share of the value

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/25/how-much-to-quit-facebook.html

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Facebook is basically like a bunch of the channels you get for free on cable: you might spend a lot of time with them on in the background, but you wouldn’t miss them if they were to go dark and you sure as hell aren’t willing to pay for them.

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Coca-cola is less nutritious than eggs. But we spend more on sugar water and they make much larger profits.

I could delete Facebook today and not miss it. If I stopped using email or search or both, there would be new problems I’d have to resolve and likely a pretty big change in my life style.

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Email and search is what we do when we have something to do. Social networking (and make-work games) are what we do when we don’t want to think of something to do. Cheap dopamine hits.

In fact, when people talk of smartphone addiction, it likely has nothing do with smartphones per se. If we could take social networks, games and user-generated videos out of smartphones, we would likely see very little of the currently-identified ill effects.

Might even give up “smart” phones altogether, in that event.

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Facebook is worth far more to its users than search and email. The latter are tools, Facebook strengthens and inflates one’s sense of self-worth.

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Why buy a smartphone if you’re not using it for social networking, games, and to generate videos?

My answer to this conundrum: image

a pretty dumb smartphone.

I like fb a lot more now that it is off my phone, and I purged my ‘friends’ lists of ‘frienemies’

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