[microcolonel]

This is HN, where it is presumed that people who absolutely have the willpower to exert personal responsibility instead convince themselves that they don't, so that they can play the victim.

If you don't like Facebook, don't use Facebook, try not to run their code, try not to connect to their hosts, and don't send data to their partners. Most importantly, live the life that makes the people around you not want to use Facebook either.

[RugnirViking]

What makes you think that everyone has this mythical willpower? Is it the same belief as belief in rational market actors, or that eveyone makes decisions after carefully considering all of the concequences?

Face it, humans (you, me, bigshot CEOs) all act primarily based on simple emotional wants and desires, most of the time. I can guarantee you that there are a great deal of CEOs, maybe even some of whom you look up to, that spend too much time on facebook/linkedin/playing golf etc, know it, and yet do nothing about it.

[microcolonel]

> Face it, humans (you, me, bigshot CEOs) all act primarily based on simple emotional wants and desires, most of the time.

Some people are mentally disabled and can not regulate a desire to use Facebook, but if you tell all the able people that they're incapable of reasoning themselves out of it, they will become less able.

Facebook works on network effects, if people still healthy enough to quit can do so, Facebook becomes inherently less attractive. If you tell people that they are inevitably ruled by their passions, many will just take the faustian bargain and hope somebody swoops in to save them from themselves.

I don't think this is a good strategy, especially if you're not proposing any actual solution (and no, swift legislation is not a practical way to deal with this situation, given how divisive that is).

[mercer]

Focusing on willpower and self-empowerment is a great strategy when applied to oneself. When applied to others it's often 1) shitty 2) self-congratulatory, 3) lacking in empathy and ignorant of the particulars of another's situation, and 4) useless, because clearly these others seem to not find themselves able to do that thing that you are able to do.

Generally speaking, being shamed or otherwise punished is counter-effective when it comes to changing something, especially when it comes to addictions of various kinds.

There's a huge difference between on the one hand a friend telling you that you can do it, and offering help and strategies, and on the other hand a shitty internet commenter telling you that you're simply not trying hard enough.

Tough love has its time and place, but usually it mostly benefits the giver of it.

[JohnFen]

> If you don't like Facebook, don't use Facebook, try not to run their code, try not to connect to their hosts, and don't send data to their partners

I do all that. The problem is that all that insufficient.

If the like of Facebook, Google, etc., would actually leave me out of things when I don't use their services, I wouldn't care nearly as much about what they do.

[firethief]

> This is HN, where it is presumed that people who absolutely have the willpower to exert personal responsibility instead convince themselves that they don't, so that they can play the victim.

If there's somewhere humans don't do that, sign me up. Not that I'd probably pass the entrance test but my failure would be enlightening.