Either way, as a parent I do believe I have a responsibility to raise my children to understand the need to balance the desire for social validation, with actual contribution to the social order. Facebook et al., don't appear to be too interested in promoting externalisation of these issues, and have demonstrated a strong willingness to do whatever they can to keep people - kids and adults alike - glued to their landing pages .. whereas if parents were raising kids to understand this trap, it wouldn't be so easy.
But, as it is, more often than not when met with the statement "I don't let my kids use Facebook", too many times other peers/parents respond with "well you're not letting your kids keep up with the times, you are damaging them by not letting them have free access to the things that 'everyone else has'" .. and here, I think, is the crux of the social dilemma. In this aspect, I agree with primitur that parenting is the solution.
Parents need to raise the next generation of humans to be wise to the ways of the wicked mind-control cults. Facebook just happens to be the contemporary version.
