About social media - all I really use Facebook for, primarily, is to stay lightly connected to &quot;friends at a distance&quot; for fear of losing them and not being able to find them again.  Something that a contact book could easily solve, as long as you verify the contact methods were still valid from time to time.  At least for me, the novelty of sharing&#x2F;comparing of social details has long worn off.<p>Not sure the cost of being data-mined is worth the value in the end.<p>And that makes me wonder... how many people out there feel like an object to be used, mined  and sold or sold to, rather than valued as a human being, or find their struggle to be recognized, powerful, wealthy, whatever too overpowering?<p>The book &quot;Bowling Alone&quot; [1] is an interesting take on much of this from around the year 2000.  In theory, social media must have helped with the problems outlined in that book.  And yet, I wonder, has the real solution been hijacked by commercialism?  Maybe.  And what would that book say if written today?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bowling_Alone" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bowling_Alone</a>