Facebook is not like the power company, or the water district. It is not an essential utility that people will die without. If Facebook suddenly disappeared from the Internet tomorrow, life would go on. This particular person might find it somewhat more difficult to socialize without it, but people have been socializing for decades without Facebook, and people will continue to socialize when it's dead.
Just throwing up our hands and saying "we simply need Facebook" doesn't help anyone, and doesn't help to fight the pernicious effect of Facebook's dominance. I agree though, that some kind of regulation is part of the solution--but not because it's some kind of essential utility, but because of it's ill effects (like smoking).
Despite her initial fears about being so dependent on it, this might actually have been a blessing in disguise--just the encouragement she needed to let go and move on from this harmful platform.
Just throwing up our hands and saying "we simply need Facebook" doesn't help anyone, and doesn't help to fight the pernicious effect of Facebook's dominance. I agree though, that some kind of regulation is part of the solution--but not because it's some kind of essential utility, but because of it's ill effects (like smoking).
Despite her initial fears about being so dependent on it, this might actually have been a blessing in disguise--just the encouragement she needed to let go and move on from this harmful platform.