[PG-13]

I'd like to know the ages of the people "quitting" Facebook and how much you actually used it in the first place. Most of Hacker News is too old to actually use Facebook the way young people use it. You're just there so you can feel as though you're in tune with tech trends or whatever. You have never really used Facebook, which is why almost all the comments on here about Facebook are so bad. You sound like old people screaming at kids to get off the yard. If you were a real Facebook user (hundreds of photos documenting years of your life), you wouldn't be able to just quit like that over something like this. I seriously don't understand why anybody over 30 even bothers to write things about Facebook, something that isn't meant for them, and something they clearly don't understand.

Old wantrepreneurs on here are so bitter about Facebook's success. I remember someone giving career advice actually recommending Google over Facebook. You have to be completely out of touch to even think such a thing. Google is yesterday's news. They are a bloated company filled with talentless individuals, people who would kill for the chance to have the skills necessary to work for Facebook, but their brains just aren't good enough

If you're over 30, please stop posting your "opinion" on Facebook. Your opinion on Facebook is about as insightful as an 80-yr-old's opinion about the internet. Instead, you guys should be begging the real users of Facebook, i.e. people who actually understand social media, to explain these things to you so that one day, with significant effort and training, you might be able to understand it.

[pedalpete]

I'm 36, all of my friends and I use facebook at least daily. Photos, events, links, news, feed, chat, all of it. I'd say for the majority of us, it is our main form of communication.

Don't forget PG-13, it was us 30+ year olds who built much of the foundation which made Facebook possible. We're thankful to the 40+ who developed the technology and environment for us to do that.

Understand the concept of 'Standing on the shoulders of Giants', and you'll have more respect for those who made what you build and dream of today possible.

Along the way, you'll hopefully realize age has very little to do with anything. As much as I am appreciative of what Tim Berners-Lee and Marc Andreessen have created, I am equally in awe of what Zuckerberg has been able to envision.

[rryan]

You know how you can't leave it because all your photos, connections, status messages, groups and all that won't come with you? That's called data portability. Facebook doesn't have it, and has no incentive to provide it.

That's exactly why you shouldn't use it today, because in 20 years, ideally you'll be able to choose which social provider you host your data at on the open web. The decentralized model works beautifully for the web and is democratizing because of it. The social web should be the same way.

[schwanksta]

Closer to 20 than I am to 30, have 700+ 'friends' chronicling most of the people I met in college (and then some), tons of wall chatter between friends and family over the years, almost 900 photos tagged of me (though I don't let anyone else see those) and a few hundred pictures I've posted myself. I use it almost daily to share interesting links / photos / news stories I read throughout the day, and to keep in touch with people since I've moved

I'm seriously considering account deletion because Facebook is making me uncomfortable. In the past, I've tried to give them the benefit of the doubt -- like when they responded to user feedback and killed beacon. I thought "Gee, maybe they aren't Evil, just a little misguided."

Now, I think they're Evil. The only thing they learned from the Beacon disaster was that they can't roll out all of the privacy erosion at once; you have to do it slowly, so nobody realizes it, or a least their anger never really reaches critical mass. Taking a hint from the government perhaps.

So I'm "hip," as you kids say. But here I am, weighing the benefits of simple and wide-reaching communication against a provider that keeps proving it's willing to sell my information without much warning.

[cromulent]

"Your opinion on Facebook is about as insightful as an 80-yr-old's opinion about the internet."

What about a 66-yr-old's? I wonder if Vint Cerf would have an insightful opinion. Or Bob Kahn - he's over 70.

Maybe Marc Andreessen could beg a real Facebook user to explain these things to him before he sits in the Facebook board meetings. He's almost 40, after all - his opinion might be worthless.

[duck]

By the sound of your reasoning, if you were older, I'm pretty sure you would of signed up for an AOL account and would still have it today because you are a 'real' AOL user.

[brandonkm]

I'm 23, signed up for Facebook my freshman year of college (when it was only college students and had ~40 schools). I use Facebook frequently but will no longer be doing so. Good riddance if you ask me.

[garyrichardson]

I agree that 'older' people don't use facebook the same way as younger people. If you've been using FB since your were in your teens, it's a part of your life. It's going to take a generation, but our society will adjust to the lack of privacy in trade for the tools it provides.

Unfortunately, no one is going to listen to you when you're insulting your audience.

[dmoney]

Ok, so younger people use Facebook differently from how older people use it (or, from your point of view, think they use it). Could you explain some of the ways in which these usage patterns differ? What about Facebook do you understand that is hard for people over 30 to get, and that makes talk of "quitting" Facebook naive?

Is there a sharp division at 30 between people who get it and don't get it, or is there a gray area between, say, 20 and 30, where people sort-of get it? Why do you suppose that is? Why 30?

Also, please be nice.

[pohl]

Don't get too comfortable with your ageist sentiments. Time will get you too.

[txxxxd]

I'm under 30 and just quit.

[adammichaelc]

I'm 26.

[Aetius]

Don't worry about being downvoted with a throwaway account. The people downvoting are most likely over 30, paranoid as fuck, and have no hand in creating today's internet. These are the same people that gave me -4 for saying "Yahoo is a rotting carcass on the landscape of the web". I get a kick out of these people, and offending them, because they are sooooo out of touch.

[loup-vaillant]

Be careful with sarcasm, this is often taken literally. (You are being sarcastic, right?)

[fauigerzigerk]

I think the vast majority of people of any age will never have a hand in anything because they are incapable of doing anything other than follow the crowd and trot out a bunch of stereotypes. You just confirmed this believe for me.