Facebook is a double-edged sword. I use it because it's the simplest way to keep in touch with all my social circles and also for the mild dopamine-kick that it gives (I'll be honest). Also, because most of them dont use Google+ yet. However, I feel an uneasiness about it because everything I read, like, comment, or try is shared over and over again with people that probably dont care. Everything I log-in I see how they combine a friend liking something and an ad for the thing they liked, it's subtle but ANNOYING. I dont care about McDonald's that much!<p>I can sense that we are not people to them, we are a commodity. Our value to them is data, this seems to me why the ethical issues keep resurfacing and people keep getting outraged. It has an unshakable Big Brother feeling to it, almost everyone I know feels better about their life because of Facebook yet dont realize how they are the product.<p>I respect the company and Mark overall, I don't hate them. But...I do feel like it's becoming more and more like the Death Star of startups. Any startup that builds a great feature/app that challenges FB's existing is acqui-hired and now a part of their empire. I can see where this is going, it'll be the Microsoft of the web. Anyone who tries to build a better social network is attempting a herculean task akin to blowing up the Death Star.<p>I'll stop now.
[May 2012] The previous submission of this article<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856</a><p>received just a few upvotes, and no comments. Meanwhile, I have engaged in hundreds of interesting conversations on other topics both here on Hacker News and on Facebook. I was amused to see how much Facebook's stock price has tanked since the IPO, but that is an investor's problem, not my problem. I use Facebook while its investors suffer, the same way I used AOL for a while during the 1990s. When Facebook fades away (the same way that AOL still exists, but is no longer a big name in the industry), I'm sure I'll still be able to connect with my friends through some new channel.
Deactivated my Facebook account this morning and deleted my Twitter account too.<p>Ironic to see this popup on the front page almost as an affirmation.