Don't know if this will be popular here, but... I like Facebook. I like seeing people's pictures and updates. I like serendipitous moments where someone announces they're in town and I get a chance to see people I haven't seen in years. I like keeping track of social events with it. I like reading a lot of their articles. I like the conversations I get in (even some of the arguments). I think it complements and enhances my social life. I try not to let it replace it.
Sure, some of the acquaintances are obnoxious on FB. The mechanisms for focusing on what I like vs what I don't seem to work well enough.
I don't like the surveillance. I try to minimize it in a number of ways. I'm sure my measures have limited effectiveness and I'm leaking details about my whereabouts, reading habits, and other preferences anyway. If FB was the only place I was doing that -- if I wouldn't have to essentially give up mobile/internet communications to truly solve that problem -- I might think harder about whether the value I get out of FB was something I could trade for privacy.
Probably uncool but I like facebook too. Maybe I should have a more happening social life but in the absence of that it's not a bad way to keep up with people. I'm not even especially bothered about the privacy / surveillance stuff. I don't post anything I'd be particularly worried about being public and I'm not to fussed about the add tracking thing effecting which ads uBlock ends up blocking or that I don't read. I just scrolled through the last 35 posts in the main feed and couldn't find anything obviously sponsored. If there's one thing that bugs me it's not having much control over the filtering. On the phone I only tend to get quite a small subset of my friends posts.
Sure, some of the acquaintances are obnoxious on FB. The mechanisms for focusing on what I like vs what I don't seem to work well enough.
I don't like the surveillance. I try to minimize it in a number of ways. I'm sure my measures have limited effectiveness and I'm leaking details about my whereabouts, reading habits, and other preferences anyway. If FB was the only place I was doing that -- if I wouldn't have to essentially give up mobile/internet communications to truly solve that problem -- I might think harder about whether the value I get out of FB was something I could trade for privacy.