[folksinger]

Ah, the age old argument for personal responsibility...

"Oh, is the river polluted? Then don't go in the damn river! Use your head! Don't expect someone, or god forbid the government, to force someone to clean it up just so you can go fishing in the river!"

It doesn't matter if you or I choose not to use Facebook. The rest of the planet is glued to their smartphones and phubbing us every time we leave the house and that affects us regardless of our choices.

[cgmg]

Your analogy is ridiculous. In what way is polluting a river like hosting a social network on your own servers?

[theSpaceOctopus]

> Your analogy is ridiculous. In what way is polluting a river like hosting a social network on your own servers?

It's an analogy for the "age old personal responsibility argument", but if you want to get metaphorical then maybe society is the river, Facebook the pollutant?

I mean come on man, it doesn't take a creative genius to connect the dots here, and it's certainly not ridiculous.

[folksinger]

The Facebook logo is everywhere. On the side of delivery vans, pizza boxes, business cards and paperback books. Public spaces are littered with people staring down at their phones. Our politics has been usurped by the machinations of social media.

Pretending like an individual can simply logout of Facebook and not have to deal with the social consequences is what is ridiculous!

I'll go full Godwin: There were probably less swastikas per square inch at the height of Nazi Germany than there are Facebook logos today. The perceived rise of authoritarianism of some political Other is nothing more than the actual authoritarianism of Facebook.