I felt like throwing something different out there to provoke discussion.

And I appreciate it. I really do think it's an important discussion to have. I think it's an important discussion to have right, though - Otherwise you end up with conversations like this one where one person asserts that everything is fine because it feels fine.

This link is full of statistics and facts, but it's also a video whereby every kid can watch and go "I'm not that guy, he's wearing a different sweater than me." It's a lot like global warming: when you are presenting a scenario that illustrates sweeping changes in behavior are necessary, you can't go off half-cocked on the data because your audience is going to be overtly hostile to your message.

Anyway, one thing that has yet to be addressed in the comments is what the author says about how abstention from Facebook removes a certain amount of agency from the user, in that other people are posting about you, and not being on Facebook precludes your being able to do anything about it.

Hey, hey! Time for an Aaron Sorkin quote!

I have had to learn a thing or two about spin. An absence of spin is, truly, negative spin. If you aren't managing your own online image, someone else will manage it for you - and guaranteed, their motives are different.

I was dragged kicking and screaming to cell phones and I was dragged kicking and screaming to Facebook. I would say roughly 30% of the time I spend on Facebook is spent re-jiggering my security settings in response to some damn thing or other that changes in the TOS. I resent that time, but I still put it in - we didn't start this fistfight but we're sure as fuck in it. Many of my friends, confronted with a reality in which any job interview requires them to "friend" someone from HR so that their FB profile can be sniffed, maintain two or three Facebook profiles: a real one that only a select few know about under a pseudonym and a fake one that is essentially a resume dossier. It's kind of the obvious outcome when old, calcified thinking demands compliance from young, agile thinking and it makes me glad that I'm no longer involved in sarariman bullshit.

that is the cost of opting out of Facebook - but the author doesn't really get into the essentials, instead waving hands around and speaking in general terms.