The Great Ganesha

A ‘Dear Economist’ column of the Financial Times had an interesting letter a couple of weeks ago from a “T.B.,” who asked:

…somebody has just shown me a thing called ?Facebook?, which they say is being used by lots of new graduates. I have been told that the economic value of my ?network? is not what it was. What is going on?

The Economist (Tim Harford) replies:

…simple arithmetic ignores an offsetting effect: diminishing marginal returns. The first mobile phones were used to conduct multi-million-dollar deals. One more mobile phone today is one more source of classroom text messages. Many people who sign up to Facebook quickly find they have no use for it. [link]

Hear, hear. Count me in as one of those. I was coaxed into joining by several different people, and did so in the hopes I could network professionally. But except for reconnecting with old school chums in India (and the associated short-term thrills), it served little purpose to me. In fact, there were even some negative externalities since I was forced to deal with certain people who I was quite comfortable keeping ten thousand miles away, both physically and mentally.

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