I remember someone on one of the comp.arch.* newsgroups pointing out in 1997 that privacy was over because everyone reading his post was probably already in a for-sale corporate database.

In 1997

The ship sailed a long time ago.

Nowadays, actual social status is somewhat dependent on one's status on Facebook, i.e. whether they frequently post pictures, what they do in those pictures, whether they go to premium vacation, etc.

I heavily dislike this. I also have seen my social status take a visible hit because I abstained from Facebook.

This effect is more announced in economically backwards geographies.

I don't care because I have a small circle of friends and well-wishers with whom I am content, and I am comfortably employed, and a man with good culture.

You're not alone, I deleted my Facebook roughly around that same time (in 09 IIRC), and haven't joined any other major social media since (only social media I have left is hacker news and a tiny mastodon instance, and only started using these recently).

I had the same outcome, its a pretty massive blow to one's social life, and looking back it probably was not worth it to leave, but I stand by my decision. My miscalculation was the assumption that social media was a bit of a fad that people would "grow out of". Turned out to be completely the opposite, people I thought would never ever have been on social media are now some of the same people that are on it constantly.