Idiocracy was right, of course, but that doesn't mean we should give in. I've thought about this in the past a bit and I have largely the same opinion as qwazix.

People in general just don't care about technical details enough to make choices based on such concepts as freedom or open standards. If we could make a kitten die each time someone chooses a closed alternative against open alternative, there might be some more success. But even then, I think we might run out of kittens before converting everyone. As we can't have kittens as leverage, most people don't give a **** about these things.

I've settled on trying to do the "right thing" myself, without being fanatical about it, and hoping "educating" people by my own behaviour. That is, I try to use open protocols/systems when possible, and refusing to use closed protocols/systems when possible. If a friend asks me for a Facebook chat, MSN chat, etc. I tell them that I'm not in those services and will not use them. I tell them my Jabber/Gtalk chat account that he can use to contact me, and instructions how to set it up. And if he asks me why couldn't I just create Facbook/MSN/whatever account, I will tell him my reasons. He either understands my reasons or not, but if he really wants to chat with me it won't be a problem for him to use that 5 minutes to set it up. And if open standards are really better, I hope in the long run he will see it himself too.

And about not being fanatical about it, when it comes to work I do not have the luxury of choosing my communication channels. I try to avoid closed protocols even there if I can, but sometimes the work requires me to use them. And I have no problem with that, as long as ktitens are not getting killed because of it.