I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to avoid Google if you want.

Google however do give you something back for all the data they harvest. Gmail, GApps etc are all really good and paid for in exchange for my browsing data. I am not naive about this and avoid putting anything too personal on the internet (because in my mind its still the timewaster it was in 1998) but at least I get something back, unlike Facebook who take your data and run.