&gt; The internet can act as a social lubricant of sorts which is valuable<p>Whether or not this is true depends upon the ability of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to exact change. Things are not looking empirically good for &quot;internet society.&quot;<p>Although I think it&#x27;s safe to allow for the possibility of an immanent &quot;death of Facebook&quot; which could give rise to the social lubricant you&#x27;re describing, since I don&#x27;t think Facebook served the Arab Spring very well.