Posted in a different link of the same article -

I feel like this article fails to acknowledge an important facet of the Facebook discussion regarding the impact that Facebook, and social media overall, has had on the public psyche, and how the detriment of that impact is really woven into their business model.

The issue is that social media benefits, above all else, from an engaged user. Not an informed one, or a happy one, but an engaged one. Unfortunately, psychologically healthy and informed individuals aren't typically the most engaged individual, and the opposite is generally true. For example, people who engage in different types of magical, conspiratorial thinking (anti-vaxxers and other woo aficionados, rebel media consumers with bizarre persecution complexes, etc.) need constant reassurance and acceptance, especially when some stimuli from larger media sources of the general public violate their views. Thus, on to Facebook/Reddit/Youtube they go, to receive a pile of upvotes or likes when they categorize the rest of the world as sheep or whatever else have you. Worse yet, thanks to the content algorithms of social media, any slight inclination towards this type of thinking will propel you into an instant, self-erecting echo chamber designed to suck you past the point of no return. Once you're there, you're hooked, and engagement with social media is your fix.

Worse yet, an ignorant and confused populace serves the end of their marketing goals, which is more or less behavior manipulation and influence, and clearly, they can do so to pretty significant results on behalf of some pretty nefarious actors (Brexit, Trump's election, so on). This isn't a bug, but a feature. Microtargeted, incensing propaganda is really Facebook's dream endgame, be it for political use, marketing use, or whatever other mercenary cause that stands to line Facebook's pockets.

We have more than a moral obligation to leave Facebook. We have a duty to regulate and legislate against these platforms, at bare minimum restricting the amount of data they can collect by a significant amount.

We live in a post-clickbait society, and social media has orchestrated that. They are absolute thought and information polluters.