I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been trying to make this same argument to as many people as I know, including my wife who has “tried” to break her addiction, but can’t seem to. I never felt so free as when I permanently deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago, followed later by deleting two Twitter accounts and my Instagram account. I’ve also deleted two Google accounts entirely, am keeping Goodreads — which I don’t view as typical “social media” or harmful — and I continue to do as much as possible, even though it takes too long to erase most of my digital footprints. Having been on the “Internet” since the early 1980s, long before the invention of the WWW, that’s been hard to do, but I’ve made massive progress. There are now sites online about how to become Google-free, alternates to Facebook-like social media, non-tracking search engines, alternative and secure email services, etc. Interestingly I’m reading a book right now titled “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe” by Roger McNamee, a major venture capitalist who helped provide the funds to start Facebook as well as becoming Zuckerberg’s mentor, of sorts. He came to the party late (this realization), but he’s been trying to make major waves with some other powerful people in briefing senators, congresspeople, enlisting the aid of some in the media, tech, ex-FB execs, etc., to alert the world to the dangers posed by Facebook and other data mining and selling companies like Google, Amazon, and so on . You can see its listing on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40909439-zucked. I didn’t post its Amazon or other purchase URL because I’m not trying to sell a book, simply let people know there’s a really good, current one out there right now by an major ex-insider who agrees with most of what you say and is working hard to get the US and the world to address Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, etc.’s inherent problems while it’s still possible. BTW, my only complaint about this otherwise excellent piece of yours is that I was planning to write something similar and you beat me to the punch! LOL!