SAM (Segment Anything Model) is an underappreciated line of open weights transformer models, which Facebook has released and are absolute magic for computer vision.

WhatsApp as a service is pretty good. I can have great quality video chat with people on the other side of the world for free.

When I was a kid this was not possible / very expensive.

(Of course personally I prefer more privacy focused options like Signal, but still)

Answering this question feels like walking into a downvote trap on HN, but commenters here constantly underestimate how much small and local businesses around the world operate on Meta services: It’s how they find and connect with customers, communicate with them, and engage with the communities.

The sentiment toward Meta is completely different when I talk to friends who are not in tech and who have small, local businesses. Like I’m talking to people who live in two completely different worlds and wouldn’t understand each other’s perspectives.

I usually hold my tongue on this topic, as I expect many others do, because commenting with anything other than pure anti-Meta sentiment is just asking for downvotes on this website, but since you asked what I presume to be an honest question I think it’s worth an honest answer.

Note that I’m not trying to say that this makes up for that or to cancel out other complaints people might have. I’m only trying to answer the question above.

Well, the play devil's advocate, the Meta Quest series of VR headsets have been a boon for healthy exercise. It stands to reason the headsets would not have had as much reach if only Oculus sold them. Then, there is the benefits like the FB marketplace, which as been a boon for small businesses and individuals. Facebook more generally has had a lasting impact on the way we communicate online and social media. As with all social media though, it has its benefits and downsides.

You know I hear people act like social media is always a net negative, but an example I like to point is the several shootings that happened during the "No kings" protest. Because of dozens of people recording and having access to social media the incident in all of its messy details came out quickly and in a way that couldn't be shut down. Now think in a world without social media how does that actually get widespread coverage? Who gets the first word out, is it random people videoing on their phones or is it the government with an official report of the incident that produces their spin?

I'm not saying social media is ideal, but it has done a lot to democratize the ability of people to share what is happening around them. Now whether that is a good or bad thing has more to do with how you feel about democracy and that's a different discussion. But although it is taking time to adapt I'd say that one now has more opportunities to be informed about the things that are going on them ever before.

Zstd.

But that's about it.

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