I think there’s a happy middle ground to be struck. This is a very interesting essay and very persuasive. I came off Facebook and Twitter last year, and have suffered no real ill effects from doing so. I don’t believe they did anything positive for my mental health or that they are particularly benevolent in a society that is psychologically ill-equipped to deal with the consequences of this technology. Society isn’t mature enough yet. I’m not keen to be one of the lab rats in Zuckerberg’s experiments — but I’m still fairly content to publish my views on Medium, so I’ll still be shot if the revolution comes.

But I do think there is a half way model, similar to the one that TFL runs in London. TFL is a private company that is owned by the Government. It retains staff and maintains high standards across the network, the staff are still unionised and have comparably good working conditions. If Facebook solely invested its profits back into service and was upfront about doing so, then I think there could be a healthy balance struck. Not entirely nationalised, but not entirely private companies either.

It’s possible to get a tube/bus across London pretty much every 3–10 minutes. With 24 hour options available all week. All for around £8 per day (if capped). It’s so far ahead of the private rail companies in terms of cost and standard that’s its ridiculous. And Londoners do get some say over how it is operated, TFL is managed by the London Mayor, who is ultimately answerable to the voting public.

There’s a half-way-house model of functionality that could be made to work. I suspect that Facebook would not want to localise and give up their massive share profits.

All this is food for thought, thanks for writing a well researched and great article. Very enjoyable read and looking forward to reading more of your stuff. :o)