We are always dying, and I doubt Facebook kills much faster than HN as most of the lethality comes from sitting still while reading. Of course, FB comes with extra stress for some, but I don't know how the cyber bullying on FB stacks up with the workplace rage from Excel.
It's true that sitting and reading isn't really going to help you live any longer. If you're going to read, however, you should at least get something meaningful out of it.
It may be different for some, but I get much more out of HN than I ever did when I used Facebook.
