LOS ANGELES – We heard from many of you: You are not only ready to delete Facebook, but you've already done it, and are very happy you did.

Despite all the hack attacks, issues with personal data getting shared with companies and other entities, and all the apologies, I'm not quitting Facebook and I didn't think most of you would either. The positives of the social network outweigh the negative, at least for me – and many of you.

But sporting the hashtag "FacebookFreeJanuary," Jeff Johnson of New Jersey says he just quit, and he won't come back until February, encouraging others to join him as a way to lobby Facebook into changing its ways.

"There has to be some consequence that Facebook actually takes notice of," he says. Advertisers and the markets care about daily active users and monthly active users, so if Facebook's usage base takes a dip, perhaps there will be real changes, he says.

Facebook makes money by monitoring our social interactions of likes, comments and shares, and targeting us to advertisers based upon our activity.

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The social network got into hot water several times in 2018 when it told politicians and users it didn't sell or share data with others, only later to reluctantly admit it had, usually with caveats. Last week, for example, after a bombshell report in the New York Times revealed Facebook shared data with companies like Microsoft and Spotify, the social network said the partnerships didn't give "companies access to information without people's permission." Many users zip through user agreements and have said they don't recall giving the companies the permission to read direct messages.

Despite the controversies, Facebook has more members now than it did at the beginning of the year – just over 2.2 billion, and it's on track to beat 2017's ad revenues, over $55 billion. It's taken a hit on Wall Street – but so have many other tech companies as the stock market has gone south at the end of 2018.

Johnson's dream: Millions quit the service in January, causing Facebook to make substantial changes. In February, he'd like to see the social network announce a plan, in response to #JanuaryFreeFacebook, that gives users transparency and control over how their data is used. "No sneaky 'partnerships' that send our data off to others without our agreement," he says.

Mark Richardson of the San Francisco Bay Area wrote to say he deleted Facebook earlier this year, mostly because of privacy concerns. "I am happier without Facebook," he says. "The endless insight into people’s thoughts and lives had a negative impact on my mental state. I don’t care what some former coworker is cooking for dinner, or what an erstwhile classmate thinks of Donald Trump."

Rives McDow of Los Angeles says he quit Facebook in 2017, again, due to privacy concerns, "and this has not had any impact on my life," since.

"There are plenty of ways to do all the things that Facebook offers, and most of the ways are much more personal and involve more direct contact with people than Facebook offers," he says. "I think the impression people have about their involvement with Facebook is rooted in their illusions about their relationships with people, and this has been borne out by my experience in having relationships I have with people deepen considerably since quitting Facebook and social media in general."

Dave Hairfield from Arizona says he deleted Facebook in early December and "sometimes" misses it. "Sometimes. But when I look at my wife's FB page, it reinforces why I had to let it go. I can honestly say I am a far happier human being as a result."

Finally, Dennis Lee of Albany, Oregon, says he's happy he never signed up for Facebook to begin with. "The more I learned about their system and business model the more concerned I got about my own security, so I elected to not participate ... Allowing massive unfiltered flow of content is just not a good mix with human nature."

But, not everyone is willing to quit.

Marsha Webb told us on Twitter that Facebook is the easiest way to keep in contact with her family and stay up to date with their lives. Despite all the controversy, "I don't care what Facebook does," she wrote.

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.