I deleted my Facebook account in 2017 which in hindsight was relatively early as it became a popular choice for many in the years that followed. This was after a period feeling more uncomfortable with it's toxicity in my life, particularly around the Brexit era. I won't go into the specific reasons as they should be familiar to most people by now but suffice to say I didn't look back and everything that happened since then reinforced that commitment to myself.
As surprising to myself as anyone though I have, in 2025, recreated a Facebook account, much to my sense of shame and displeasure but before you pick up your tomatoes let me explain...
I have had a lot of fun this summer playing with retro systems and I got a bit carried away with building a couple of different PCs spanning different eras of PC gaming that I lived through in the late 90's and early 2000's. I realised in hindsight though that picking up parts on eBay was often expensive and I knew that there were better deals to be made in more casual classified ads. I also have a lot of things I need to sell and the overhead of auctions isn't always desirable for lower value items.
Unfortunately after some research it seems Facebook as eaten the classifieds market whole. Gumtree/Craigslist and whatever might as well pack up shop at this point because all the trades are made on Facebook and I had to decide if there was any amount of compromise I was willing to make to access that. I don't even now know for sure if I am happy with the compromise I have made but time will be the judge of that.
In my defence, I am not the naive version of me that signed up with my eyes closed back in 2005 and encouraged my friends and family to do so too. I created the account using an email address that has no connection to me anywhere else. No one I know has this address so it won't suddenly start linking me back to any acquaintances and if they somehow do any friend requests will be met with silence, as for my social networking needs I've moved on to Mastodon and have no intention of walking that back.
I installed Firefox's Facebook Container that assures me it will isolate Facebook from my wider internet browsing. There isn't a cat in hell's chance I will ever install the app on my phone, I am purely a desktop user. My account has no content, I have no friends, I have no profile picture but this hasn't stopped me reaching out and having positive interactions with people on marketplace.
However my understanding of the marketplace turned out accurate, there is a lot of trading going on there and some deals that aren't found elsewhere. I truly hate that this is the case and wished someone else was able to draw the network away from it but it's just the reality we live in.
I'm not asking for forgiveness, I don't feel like I need/deserve any, and if I get any harsh criticism then I'll just console myself with some light gaming on the high end Threadripper system I bought on there for an absolutely insane price and now hums away next to me.
When the account has served it's purpose though I expect I'll drop it like a hot potato, or burning piece of graphite from Chernobyl, which is probably a more apt analogy.