Telegram collects your messages just the same by default (and inevitably collects them if you want a group), it just doesn't monetize the data in the open. Yet.
this. it is easier and more intuitive to have a telegram family group than facebook. The interface is cleaner, the messages are clearer. Your aunts and uncles will (might?) thank you
I used to think this way, but I've realised that email is crap! It's the minimum, but it has so much friction.
People click "reply" instead of "reply all" so others get cut out of the conversation, attaching photos on a phone is a pain. You have to fill out all those fields (subject, To, CC). The subject is always garbage ("Hi" or just empty). Then you have the message buried 2 clicks in, with random chunks of quoted reply appearing again - and this is with everyone on gmail, that mostly clears up the quoted text problem. And if someone dares to change email address, forget it. That's it, you may as well give up trying to contact them because you'll never get the right address any more. And there's all this old-skool formality that people expect with email ("Dear Mother, ..., regards, Derpface"). Emojis don't always render correctly, it depends on the email client on the other end.
I don't use Facebook, but I do have a couple of Whatapp groups, and whenever my parents can't update Whatsapp because their ancient Android phone is out of space, and Whatsapp requires the update due to some protocol change, they end up going back to email... and it is like the stone age again.
if its only keeping in touch with your family then i would say that facebook isnt really that essential since there are countless other services/apps that you could use for that purpose.
but if you also want to passively keep up to date with what other people are doing or posting then thats a bit harder to do without facecheck
Facebook is like the roommate you all agreed to have, but then you find out that he's eavesdropping on every conversation and writing down notes. Wouldn't you want to kick him out?
Facebook has been an essential tool for keeping in touch and keeping track.
What do I tell them all to use instead? Migrating to anything else, even if we all agreed, would be a huge pain.