[warpspeed]

As much as it's good to "fight the good fight" against FaceBook, it's fast becoming an expected means of communicating. Believe me, I deleted mine years ago and finally had to come back because I realized I was actually hindered in real ways by not having an account.

I personally think FaceBook will reach an inflection point where public interest will wane and people will use it less and less... but still have accounts. Then something better will come along and there might be a mass migration. For now though, the reality is it's somewhat essential.

[mshron]

In what way were you hindered? I deleted mine years ago and the only downside is that I occasionally can't see a photo album someone sends me. It's not like photos only exist on Facebook.

I can't speak for other people, but the effort it took to maintain a Facebook presence (deidentify unflattering photos, take a few minutes every day to get caught up on people's minutiae) was far greater than the benefit it brought me.

People who want to talk to me know my email address and phone number.

(edit: clarification, first paragraph)

[warpspeed]

Well, that's exactly it. Everyone else seemed to "be in the loop" compared to me. People don't always think to mass-email a silly picture of their baby or their latest comment on world news, but those are things I definitely appreciate being able to see. Sure, I might not care what they had for breakfast that day, but it sure is nice to know how my friend's trip to Costa Rica was. Basically FaceBook is its own layer in my social network, and not having an account was ostracizing me.

To me, it's analogous to the argument against text messaging. Yes, people who want to talk to me can simply call, but there's a bottom threshold of importance that must be met to deem a phone call necessary. Meanwhile I can text a one sentence message to a friend I haven't seen in months and not spend half an hour on the phone.

[pavel_lishin]

I'm keeping my account because it's the tool 90% of my friends - including my wife - use to plan social activities. I can see which events I'm invited to, and who's coming over to our house next saturday for dinner.

We could use Google calendar for this, or any number of other tools, but that would put a burden on our other friends to learn a new system. The end result would be that some people would flat out not attend the event, and some others would attend but not RSVP, throwing off guest counts, etc.

[grannyg00se]

Does facebook really provide that much value add over a simple email invite? Every response you get can go into a special folder for that party. When the party is over, you delete the folder - or leave it - maybe even put it in an "old parties" folder.

[nvr219]

Using facebook for events provides a few benefits over email: 1. You don't need to know your friends' email address 2. You can add pictures/video from the event 3. It automatically generates maps, directions. 4. People not interested in getting emails every time someone responds with "I'll bring the salsa!" can choose not to get notified.

[mcpie]

Far too much work. The whole point of a facebook event is to be rid of the organizational administration and to be able to discover events your friends go to / invite you to in a central place.

[scott_s]

For some people, Facebook is their primary means of communicating online.

[jonknee]

I still have an account but don't login (maybe used it once in the last few months). Before that I only accessed it in an Incognito tab and before that I had the Facebook Disconnect extension running so that I don't see any Like widgets around the web. It's not easy, but it is possible to contain Facebook.

tl;dr I treat Facebook like a virus that is infecting the web.

[wmeredith]

That's definitely a concern, since I don't like FB much as a company. Thankfully, this hasn't happened in my social circles yet and it doesn't appear that it ever will at this point.