> You can't honestly look at Facebook's contribution to the Arab Spring (and similar social justice causes) or the millions of people it has reconnected (long-lost family/friends) and think that SpaceX has any chance of creating comparable positive impact at any point in the near future.
You absolutely can. The telephone did those things, too. So does Twitter. If it weren't Facebook, something else would've been used instead.
This is like celebrating the "success" of a new hammer design. There will be another tool in five years' time that will replace Facebook, too.
I imagine it was useful simply because it was the biggest social site online.
If facebook had not existed I'm sure they would have found other ways to accomplish similar goals.
It's not as if they set facebook up with the intent on making it easy to organise revolutions.
If they could have got similar eyeballs by posting a video on xtube.com would that have made xtube a great innovation?
That's the point. Facebook brought social network to the masses. In my environment, Twitter is still a tool for geeks. Facebook has brought to hundreds of millions the broadcasting and sharing features. You can't deny that. It could have been something else than Facebook, but it hadn't. Someone else than Neil Armstrong could have landed on the moon, but he was the guy. And he deserves the credit rightly. Past and events are what they are.
You absolutely can. The telephone did those things, too. So does Twitter. If it weren't Facebook, something else would've been used instead.
This is like celebrating the "success" of a new hammer design. There will be another tool in five years' time that will replace Facebook, too.