sabmalik

I keep seeing the argument "More accurate weapons would kill fewer people". By that logic, it would be perfectly okay for Google to sell this technology to the enemy states so those guys could kill fewer Americans. This sounds ridiculous to me but it's likely I am missing something.

So by that definition, it would be great to sell this technology to the "enemy" as well because then they could kill fewer people.

I love Spotify. For me its a music discovery service. I dont care if you call me a user or a listener, all I know is that last year I listened to 1800+ artiste/bands. A few years ago I was stuck listening to the same 20-30 bands that I knew about or someone recommended. I now know about artists (possibly OP is one of them) that I would have never come across otherwise. I think that is their product and they do a pretty great job of it.

As with a lot of other issues these days, it feels like that people forget there is usually a middle ground between the extremes. FB like any other tool can be a good or bad thing.

I spent a bit of time thinking about what I want to get out of Facebook.

- Social pulse - What are people talking about these days?

- Interesting/new content/new perspective/taking advantage of the echo chamber etc

- Keeping track of the very few physically-distant people that I care about

- Share some content that I think people would benefit from and wouldn't come across otherwise

- Buying/selling rarely in the marketplace

- Quick diary where I can store stuff that I found interesting

I took a few steps to get what I wanted out of the platform.

- Follow only the people that post content I might be interested in. It includes people that somewhat think like me and some that have very different opinions.

- Follow some of the content aggregation sites

- I only post content that is fit for public consumption except when I rarely share a photo of my kids/family

- Moved the FB app from the first screen to the last

How it has helped me.

- Cut down my usage by about 90%

- I am less concerned about privacy issues when it comes to FB as there isn't much on there that I wouldn't say out loud in public

- I kinda get a broad spectrum of how people are feeling about an issue

- More quality content than I used to get before. One of my favourite features on FB is "Save post". When I have a few minutes, I find stuff from my saved list or Pocket to read/watch.

- I see more photos of the people that I actually like rather than memes and quotes

I am pretty okay with how social media is involved in my life now.

You are absolutely right, they don't but I start with the assumption that they do and I just need to ask the right questions.

I am not great with words, please accept my apologies.

When I say "big deal", I meant it more like talking about homosexuality is now less of a "big deal" then it was back in the day. I am not saying that the loss itself is not a big deal, just talking about it shouldn't be.

Maybe, if we live in a society where it's easy to talk about death then maybe the grieving process would become easier too. Right now, people tend to act weird around people who has just lost someone (I have experienced that first hand), the people who are suffering the loss feel like they have to "stay strong" and not show their emotions to others because they don't want to be a burden. It's a vicious cycle which we can break by just talking about it.

I am in 2 minds about this. Part of me agrees with you but the other part of me doesn't.

Personally, I feel death (and afterlife) has played an important role in popularising (selling?) religion.It is still a difficult subject to talk about, in some cultures even joking about your own death is a big no-no. Maybe this is the best way to break this barrier and understand that death is "normal" and it's okay to talk about it along with other normal things. Maybe this "productization" will get us all to a point where we are all okay talking about it openly and frankly, without making a big deal about it?

The tone of the article/ title is not informational. It's accusatory and exploitive.

I appreciate the sentiment but what exactly are you proposing?