>TINFOIL GUYS!!!!!
guys don't just deactivate your FB acc, request deletion, beacuse if you deactivate and use any services like any page login or any social services like insta, and you use your FB credentials to login, the gets reactivated and your news feed even shows what you have missed in the mean time , so all of the (your) data is still in their servers

Why would you do that? There's lots of good uses for Facebook. Lots of discussion groups on different topics, from hobbies to professional topics. Lots of local events which makes your life worth living. And if none of that interests you, you need it to do any type of integration with Facebook.

Just don't like and share everything you see, and don't post photos of your wieners, and you'll be fine.

@AndSoWeCode
-I'm not 12, so no wieners
-Found other places for discussion
-Just opened out of curiosity after 11 months and the tumour within me has become malignant

@AndSoWeCode why would you even open an account in the first place? I'm doing fine without one. If something requires facebook login to use I don't use it.

@Bikonja Me too.

If you aren't paying for it then you are the product being bought and sold.

Why would I be interested in telling some corporation/government who all my friends are and what I (and they) really think? It's Big Brother's wet dream.

@sam9669 don't you have former colleagues? Don't you have local networks of developers? Local coffee enthusiasts who share coffee-related news and events?
If while entering there, all you see is games, stupid photos and stupid statuses, then it's your fault for not making it produce the content that you need.
Facebook is a network that unites communities. Some tumors spread through that networks. The tumors are your FB friends and what they post. Do you also blame the Internet for that?

@Artemix that's a 100% solid argument. Top notch.

@Bikonja why? Because:
1. As a developer I have a ton of reasons to integrate with Facebook. Whenever I want to develop ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with Facebook (and there is a lot, because they offer the best products on the market), I need an account.
2. Because it's a network of people of different interests, that you can choose to be a part of.
3. Because it's a discussion platform that many services use.

Because why not? The benefits far outweigh any downside, and the downsides that I've read here all look like just an inability to manage privacy and the circle of people who are interesting to you.

Without FB, I wouldn't know about concerts and events happening near me.
Without FB, I wouldn't have a way to contact some people. You know... PEOPLE... those things that live and breathe and talk English. Not everything is about development.

@AndSoWeCode well that's your problem right there, you want to talk to PEOPLE :) I'll have none of that, thank you :)

But seriously, the people I actually do want to contact I do so via text messages and various direct messaging from email to WhatsApp (which, while owned by FB does not on the surface have anything to do with FB).

For concerts, I use SongKick so I never miss one.

If I needed to integrate for someone (wouldn't do it for myself), I'd create a dummy account for testing.

If you're a social person I can see how it might be interesting for you. I, however, am not and I think that goes for the most of us here.

I do agree that some people have only their selves to blame. It's not all of then, though. In fact, I haven't been 100% truthful, I've had a FB account years ago, for very similar reasons as you.
It ended up being pretty much a way to keep in touch with a very specific community. Nothing I put there was "problematic" so I had no reason to hide it.
However, something happened to me in that very same circle, causing the media to "investigate" me and seeing that my FB was about pretty much that thing only they decided I was crazed with that and therefore a total scumbag who deserves to be hanged publicly.
No, it wasn't anything weird or something, it was just a normal aspect of a LOT of lives, the problem was that my FB was only about that aspect and the reason was because I had better alternatives for other aspects of my life.
Now, this is obviously a really edge case, but still. I've no interest in opening up a new account.

@Bikonja not everybody has WhatsApp. Some discussions are larger than to be practical over the smartphone and desktop clients for WhatsApp are even rarer.

SongKick only has concerts of popular bands, but there are other events as well, that you don't even know about - indie bands, some special nights at a nearby bar or jazz club, even non-music like talks and meetups, marathons, and everything else.

Creating a dummy account is now harder than ever, and it's likely that it will get shut down very soon after its creation.

I understand you had a bad episode, but that's very rare, and it doesn't mean that FB sucks, it just means that people should watch their privacy settings, and the "friends" that they have. I post once every 1-2 months, and make sure that only the right people see it.

It's just that I've seen a lot of FB hate around here, and it's absolutely unsubstantiated. It's always either privacy or bad "friend" management.

@Artemix but your privacy is already void in a lot of other places. What makes you think Facebook is any different?

Also I've never heard of any non-political accounts being closed, unless they used fake names.

@Artemix about that link... It's basically saying that if you share every aspect of your life on Facebook, Facebook gets too much power.
The rest is not much different from Google. Actually Google knows more about anyone who doesn't use social networks intensively.

My logic is not that we should do like everyone else. You got that wrong. My logic is that the cost / benefits ratio of services like Facebook is extremely low. Anything that you do lose, you lose somewhere else anyway, at even greater rates. The alternative to being exposed to corporations is literally to be unplugged from everything, pay with cash, not use any discount cards or coupons or anything, and covering your face outside so that CCTV doesn't see you. Better just live in the woods.
What's the point?
In order for civilization to exist like it does right now, we need ways to handle an enormous amount of information and distribute it to an enormous amount of people. (continue in next post)

@Artemix (continuing)
So there are tens of billions of billions of different products offered worldwide, and you could buy a large part of that. Buying is important both to the consumer and the business, and actually more to the consumer. Money means nothing. The only value it has is the power it gives - to buy stuff. So buying actually realizes the worth of that money. You need to buy stuff. What do you buy?

In the past, we only had money for strict necessities. Our money-spending place was the supermarket, and everything else that was downtown. That's it. Today I can order a custom-designed case for my RPI from a 3D printing shop located half a world away from me, because they have the technique and materials to build that case just the way I want to.

How do I find them?

How does a small, narrow-niche company find its few customers?

Facebook. Personal data. Algorithms that connect that which is most likely to work together.

Without it, we'd be stuck in the 90s.

@Artemix no, you DO need that info. Otherwise other corporations will take advantage of you and give you sub-par products at high prices, because smaller companies won't be able to challenge them because nobody knows about small companies.

I have never seen a person who uses the computer daily, who doesn't use Google.

Cash is definitely not more secure. You can get mugged, your home can be invaded, you can get counterfeit cash, you can lose it, you can be pickpocketed, etc. As for easier to plan... Do you know how much exactly you spent on everything during the last 2 months? Do you know how much cash exactly do you have at any given moment? I know you don't, because you have to count it, and you have to manually keep record of your expenses, which wastes time, and thus - money.

The point is that FB doesn't advertise random stuff to you. It advertises stuff that you might actually need. There are too many options for one person to possibly comprehend.

@AndSoWeCode @Artemix i didn't want to start a war here, just wanted to spread some info here just deactivating ain't complete removal of your data.
please stop getting triggered over a random rant/comment over the internet.

@Artemix
I agree with fb, though I am using Gmail/YouTube atm.
What is wrong with Google? Do they index email?
I'm illiterate on security.
What do you recommend as alternative for those services?
What os do you use on you're smartphone?
My PC runs Manjaro