FB has closed my account AGAIN because I would not give them my cell phone number, or government issued ID?

[tink]

Your cell phone is how you are tracked within a 3 feet square on the planet earth.
It doesn't verify your email or name or account.
I won't give it to their Big Brother masters.

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/201...ow-too.php
_____ em.

Any other interesting sites out there that won't require that I give them my GPS co-ordinates or genetic information?

[JLI]

I would never give my telephone number to any social media. Could this be a requirement for US-citizens only?

If so, the other social media around may be a problem too. I have a twitter account, but there is a limit of 140 characters per tweet, which is annoying sometimes.

Google has a social media feature too. I have no experience with it, but I have a Gmail account. Sometimes they do ask for my phone number (to help me if I should forget the password to my account - They say). So far I haven't had any problems by not giving them my number.

[And it feels like it's only attracting the very old....]
I saw that !!! :-D

[Horror Parenting]

Its good that they make their users at least slightly accountable. This will help stop online bullying if people can't be anonymous on Facebook.

[Skylark ♥]

My friends viewed me an anarchist for deactivating my Facebook account for weeks at a time in high school, but in college many have joined the no-Facebook revolution and felt liberated. You're not longer perceived as being antisocial if you're antisocial networking. I would deactivate in high school because I had so much going on and felt like it was quicksand for my time. That's still my primary reasons for abandoning my account in college, but it's also because Facebook feels unproductive, unsatisfying, and outdated now. And it feels like it's only attracting the very old (like my grandpa and his friends) or the very young. My 13-year-old sister just encountered the same issue you did with Facebook after she'd created a second account to get around the limitation of having a maximum of 5000 friends. She's never even met the majority of those people; they're just wanting to be friends with her because she's a popular dancer. Fortunately she hasn't experienced any problems with bullying or perverts, but many others have.

I've loved Path because it's the opposite of Facebook. Whereas on Facebook kids accumulate "friends," on Path you can only have 150 contacts, so it's about genuine interaction instead of popularity contests. It was designed by a former Facebook executive to create a more intimate network that mimics your real-world friend-and-family circle. To get around that limit but still keep my networks manageable I have two accounts and just use one for college friends and one for high school and dance friends. It sounds complicated but it actually works really well. The only downside is you need an email address for each account. If you've got all your email going into on inbox that's not an issue, though. Twitter is popular, and you can protect your Tweets to help protect your privacy. You can also use a nickname. Tumblr started to eclipse Facebook in my age bracket a while ago and is now appealing to other demographics, too. There are also niche sites that have social networking built into them, like DeviantArt for music, photography and art; Pinterest for clipping and sharing things you like; GoodReads for book lovers and quote collectors; and ReverbNation and SoundCloud for musicians. There's also LinkedIn for professionals. Ask.Fm is rapidly gaining more users. It's sort of like Y!A but you ask questions or post comments in 300 characters or less, and you can add as many friends as you wish. Foursquare is somewhat OK.

ClassOwl is awesome, but it's not available to you yet. It was founded by Stanford undergrads and is already hugely popular on our campus and the few where it's been launched. It's a social academic site that is sort of like a cross between Facebook and an online social planner and class forum. Almost all professors and students now use it. It's probably going expand its format to include professionals and will be widely available in the next few years. There's also plans for other Facebook rivals in the near future through StartX, this organization that connects young Stanford entrepreneurs with venture capitalists. There are some really, really good ideas brewing. So, fret not, better things are a'comin.

It sucks that you've just been suddenly ejected from your account. It's almost like your account is being held hostage by Facebook until you cave into their demands. I do understand why they are trying to verify the identities of some users because it's a way of making people more accountable for their actions (take away the shield of anonymity and perverts and bullies are usually less bold), but it should just be reserved for those who've had complaints lodged against them and not upstanding members. Hopefully, they'll abandon this new plan when there's enough outcry. Maybe by then you'll be settled on another site and won't want to return.

~ skylark : )

Edit - ha, yeah.... I often write answers here at crazy hours when I can't sleep and just babble on mindlessly. I could have been a bit more tactful than stating that Facebook was just "attracting the very old.." now. It is true that my dad and grandpa spend way more time on Facebook than most people my age, though, haha.

Oh. Yeah, Google Plus is an option. Not that many people are using it but it's now linked to YouTube so maybe more will in the future.