I suppose techies don't have much need for social interaction, but for those of us outside the tech world, Facebook survives because it's useful for facilitating social interaction. I use Facebook (and occasionally Meetup) to help organize local running groups and events. Fantastically useful for coordinating with multiple groups of people across multiple computer and phone platforms, separated by hundreds or thousands of miles. Nothing else comes close.
It sounds like the author primarily used Facebook to be seen rather than to connect, and so he views it as a cancer. He doesn't understand that Facebook is a tool. The problem isn't Facebook, the problem was him. He was the cancer, treating Facebook as a platform for aggrandizing himself. Good riddance.
> I suppose techies don't have much need for social interaction
Humans in general need social interaction. That’s why solitary confinement is so psychologically damaging.
> Facebook survives because it's useful for facilitating social interaction.
Facebook “survives” because its social graph has many nodes and edges due to network effects. You admit to using Meetup, meaning that Facebook isn’t enough on its own for your purposes.
> It sounds like the author primarily used Facebook to be seen rather than to connect, and so he views it as a cancer.
You’re using it for that same exact purpose. If your events can’t be seen, why would you use Facebook?
> It's useful for facilitating connections with other facebook users.
And anyone willing to join Facebook to keep up with the event invitations. You don't have to post anything at all on Facebook to do this. I definitely know a bunch of people who use Facebook that way.
I'm sure Facebook is useful for organizing groups and events, but not everyone uses it (yet). I'm not signed up to Facebook (for what I feel have been proved valid reasons over the years), and I feel excluded each time it's required to participate in some event. It's good if organizers can use Facebook as an additional means of organization, rather than assuming it is both necessary and sufficient.
It sounds like the author primarily used Facebook to be seen rather than to connect, and so he views it as a cancer. He doesn't understand that Facebook is a tool. The problem isn't Facebook, the problem was him. He was the cancer, treating Facebook as a platform for aggrandizing himself. Good riddance.