What is the cost of closing my Facebook account?

There are other options. Simply tweak your security settings to meet your satisfaction. Or, you could just stop using it altogether, without deleting the account.

As far as $$$ cost, there isn’t any. But you’d be losing touch with all of your ‘friends’. That’s something you’re going to have to decide if you want to do. I’d be a BIG hassle to start up a new account.

It depends on how much you use Facebook. If you suddenly drop off the face of the Facebook earth, people may be curious. Once nice thing is that you can reactivate your Facebook and have it be pretty much just like it was before you closed it. I’ve done that before, and so have people I know. So it’s not like you have to rebuild your digital social life if you decide to go back to it.

I would also take @Ivan‘s suggestion into consideration if you don’t want so many of your Facebook friends peering into your private life. There are many ways to filter what kind of information gets shown to which friends, with the major exception of the people running Facebook itself. Unfortunately the people of Facebook will have access to all of the information you post there, no matter what filters you may put on.

The price is FREEDOM!

I could be wrong but, I think @ThundercatsMBA is speaking about the latest privacy concerns in the media…

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/04/23/privacy-issues-google-engineers-leaving-facebook-in-droves/

To be honest you would be fine to leave your BookFace account live. The issue of Google Engineers all dropping their accounts has less to do with a moral objection over the latest features implemented and has more to do with the fact that BookFace has become a threat to Google’s reign as heavyweight champ of the interwebs.

For those who want to get rid of their Facebook (and others: Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn!) you can use the following service; Suicide Machine.
But once committed…, it’s definite.

You don’t have to start a new account, should you decide to leave. Closing your facebook account basically puts it in limbo. Should you choose to come back, it preserves your account just as you left it. At least that’s how it used to be, I can’t imagine they’ve changed it. Facebook seems really set on people have only one account and linking it to their real identity as accurately as possible.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave…

Isolation, desolation, mortification, depression.

Make note…

Avoid @gailcalled when there is an apocalypse. :-)

But if you delete your facebook page how am I supposed to stalk and harrass you?!?

@TILA_ABs_NoMore HA!

Unless that ‘suicide machine’ does something I am unaware of, facebook ‘preserves’ your account because it doesn’t have much choice. The whole social thing is intertwined. Removing your posts and interactions with others would affect THEIR accounts. @dpworkin is still here in both his old and new personas. We may not be able to contacvt him, but if he wanted to reappear, all he has to do is ask.