I think that’s a pretty good analogy. One of the things I’m still struggling with is how communities work across instances. If I follow casual conversations on one instance, will I see posts on that community from other instances? Or do I have to follow each individual instance of that community? As I’m trying to find new communities to follow, I often get confused if I’m already following a specific community or which instance I should choose to follow it on.
I get what you’re saying but it’s not really an impactful argument. We don’t really “need” most things (except food and water, etc.) but that doesn’t mean they have no value or don’t bring us enjoyment. Sure, we don’t “need” social media, and you could probably make a case that the good outweighs the bad, but that doesn’t mean that it has no value or shouldn’t exist. I have a lot of concerns about privacy and there’s a lot about social media in general that I think is problematic, but I also get a lot of use out of it and there are definitely benefits to using it.