I have exactly zero trust in Facebook but I have had so many irritating moments and missed opportunities due to ditching my account years ago that I am seriously considering reopening it again.
The main aspect I'm considering these days is that I'm not important in the grand scheme of things so there's no rational reason to increase difficulty in things that do really matter such as having memorable experiences while I can in exchange for privacy or to make some statement. In a sense, I will have privacy anyway out of just being a data point out of billions.
It's not that Facebook is convenient but rather that not having it can be inconvenient depending on your context.
People are just habituated towards opening FB every time they're bored. I used to do that myself until a few years back. Consumers aren't buying anything on FB though, but advertisers are.
Considering how many veritable snake oil products gets advertised the platform, not to mention political propaganda pushed as "promoted posts", I can't help but wonder if this push to crypto is FB's way of hiding who its ad buyers are in the future.
It's more big picture. Your individual data is useless. The data of a huge % of the US (or other country, or planet) is extremely powerful. As a facebook user you contribute to that data.
So, no you individually using fb or not doesn't really matter other than on principle. I don't use it because I find them morally reprehensible, but I also understand my boycott is purely symbolic unless another 100m or so people join me (probably won't happen).
More likely a boycott will prove unnecessary; the biggest threats to Facebook are (a) fashion and (b) facebook.
... but not using Facebook makes me feel better.
I think Facebook will slowly decay into irrelevance.
One thing that really surprises me is how few startups are taking on Facebook. Obvious strategy is to work at the edges; there are so many opportunities abound to undermine them. Don’t build a new Facebook, instead just carve off their features incrementally and be the Instagram of events, classifieds, chat, video, news sharing, interest groups... huge scope for innovation. Facebook is the SAP of social networks, it’s time to move on.
Society is addicted. Many people even consider Facebook so vital to everyday life that they believe access to Facebook is a right that the government should guarantee to its citizens. This is a cultural problem that is difficult to tackle, but I think it'll require a cultural shift before people realize that Facebook is just a website that they don't have to use.
Why is it that people still use the service? Is convenience really that powerful?