Don’t Delete Facebook. Do Something About It.

When I need to focus on a project or relax a bit, I turn off the noise that comes from Facebook ...
delete your account... But don’t pretend it will make a difference to Facebook or to the state of the world... if tens of thousands of Americans quit Facebook tomorrow, the company would barely feel it... Its growth has plateaued in the United States... focuses its attention on markets like India... could reach three billion users by 2020...In much of the developing world, Facebook is also the only news source that matters. This should horrify us. But it’s not a problem that will be solved by indignant Americans leaving the service. Moreover, quitting Facebook lets Google and Twitter off the hook...
Hope lies, instead, with our power as citizens. We must demand that legislators and regulators get tougher... Regulatory interventions have limitations... Our long-term agenda should be to bolster institutions that foster democratic deliberation and the rational pursuit of knowledge....
If we act as disconnected, indignant moral agents, we surrender the only power we have: the power to think and act collectively... quit Facebook ...you might be offloading problems onto those who may have less opportunity to protect privacy and dignity and are more vulnerable to threats to democracy... Deactivation is the opposite of activism.