[nhangen]

But who really needs "aggregated, passive flow of opportunities to stay in touch?"

These are proxy relationships. Friends are welcome to call me, but I don't want to be involved in their lives 24/7, nor do I want the opportunity.

[mseebach]

Well, if "do we really need this" was a viable yardstick for the value of innovation, nothing significant would have been invented in the past 100 years.

And telling me that the relationships I have on Facebook are worth less that not having them at all because they are on Facebook rather than on the phone(x) is incredibly arrogant and, well, none of your business.

(x) Never mind that they would have significant trouble reaching me using any of the 1998 contact information they have on me. Except for my name, which happens to be fairly unique, none of it is valid today, nor was it already by 2000.

[nhangen]

I never said it was. However, you're implying that other solutions missing this means that they are not valuable or effective, which is just as wrong. It's purely subjective.

I'm not talking about your relationships either...I could care less. That's my point. Facebook is what it is, but just because it's popular does not mean it's necessary.

[meric]

The only `necessary` things are family, shelter, clothes, food, water and transportation. Yahoo and Bing are fine replacements for google even if the latter is more popular. What is your point?

[MortenK]

His point is in line 1: "However, you're implying that other solutions missing this means that they are not valuable or effective, which is just as wrong. It's purely subjective."