So am I the only person who thinks this characterization of facebook as a "parasite" or a "disease" is meaningless, useless hyperbole?
Facebook isn't any more of a "parasite" than email.
Facebook isn't any more of a "parasite" than email.
And much like email, you can roll your own. It's much harder, but it's possible.
As for you can roll your own facebook, this is absolutely false. Facebook tries to get the whole planet registering with them, and don't have and probably will never have a protocol letting a fully featured "facebook bis" integrate with them (except maybe if legally bound to).
e-mail is a completely distributed service. People using gmail are not segregated from the others.
Now I'm also not pretending that facebook is evil for all that. I was initially reacting at your comparison between facebook and e-mail, which made little sense.
Neither is hosted email. They are centrally-managed communications systems which you are free to use or not use as you will.