[tareqak]

I understand both your view (the worth of an individual is more than simply the net productive output of said individual), and the view that you are replying to (the loss to the world expressed in terms of systems thinking along some dimension).

I think you can actually reconcile both views in terms of happiness i.e. the global economy measured in terms of happiness generated. With this sort of model in mind, both you and person you are replying to can both be correct in that it is possible that social media is sub-optimal compared to some alternative that delivers some combination of increased immediate happiness and/or increased probability/reliability/sustainability of future happiness.

[Clubber]

Oh, the psychological effects of Facebook I'm certainly not arguing with. I would imagine there are some issues as there are some plusses. I'm not well versed in it because I dropped my account years ago, but my wife uses it to keep in touch with people and groups. Like anything, it depends on how it's used or how much it's used. I was just concerned with the concept of productivity cost as a measurement.

I think the Quality of Life indicator represents what you are talking about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life