Facebook is a wonderful forum to connect with friends, shop, see cat videos and reinforce your political inclinations. I highly recommend it for most folks. It can be fun and infuriating. It is the beating heart of what we cavalierly call "social media". But I decided it wasn't for me. I'm stepping back and out. I terminated my Facebook account.
Like a wizard mixing his concoctions in a darkened corner, maybe lit only by a cell phone, my reasoning is threefold. One third, this, one third that and a dash of other things that came to a boil just before leaving for Northlandia. Before I go on I am not lambasting the forum or its proponents - it is just fine for most. Like the Avengers: Infinity War isn't for everyone (certainly not me), it is the height of entertainment for most.
The first third of the recipe was the loss of privacy in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook personnel as I understand it sold my information to Russian hackers, political operatives, consumer companies, and other media companies with their own agendas. The result was we got erroneous campaign information, endless attempts to get me to buy stuff I didn't want or need, and a kind of personally fashioned forum that was molded to coerce, misinform and otherwise downright falsely color my world. My world rather than the world, since it is designed just for me. The notion that Facebook is just a way to keep in contact with Aunt Minnie in Poughkeepsie is laughable. Since 911 we have all lost a certain amount of privacy, and Facebook's selling of mine for a buck is unforgiveable.
The second third revolves around my inability to stifle my opinions on certain issues. The first time was shortly after the massacre of kindergartners at Sandy Hook. I mentioned, on a thread regarding gun moderation, my opinion that perhaps we need to strengthen background checks. Mind you, this was a local G-Burg area thread with some guys I knew and thought would accept my opinion with equanimity. I was wrong. They volleyed back a barrage of crap and epithets best left unmentioned. The second time was a friend posted something like "type Amen and you will be rewarded by cash within 24 hours." The sheep who commented typed Amen and such stuff. I made my opinion known and, again, that it was ridiculous and to be aware that this type of post was a type of phishing. My unwanted intrusion into their gauzy Facebook unreal world was met with stuff hardly worthy of Christian Amens.
The last third was that I was spending too much time with the little black screen on my little black phone watching and perhaps wishing? Wishing for what? Maybe not wishing, perhaps anticipating? Oh Hell, I don't know why I was watching that little screen and that scared me. I found myself grabbing my phone at every moment that was unfilled. Get up to pee at 1:45 and check fantasy baseball (that's OK) and then check Facebook. I then decided that looking at the world was preferable. Since I stopped my account I have seen things like rain, and blue sky, and birds and such. It is far more enlightening to me than what I was watching on Facebook. I have been freed.
There were other dashes of this and that. I bought something through the site and then I became absolutely inundated with ads. They probably represented half of what was on my page. Another dash was, and I'm a bit embarrassed, that I was beginning to examine my life and finding it wanting, what with everyone else in the world was having fun and eating great meals and, gee, I have no life. Of course this is silly. I have fun, eat great things have fun with friends, but somehow my reasoning was even when I am having fun, everyone seems to be having more fun than me. Does this have something to do with my personal situation? Yup. Would I rather be in Northlandia? Yup. Well, you get my drift. I simply decided to put my blinders on and deal with what I have, as opposed to what I don't have. Another aspect to Facebook is its ability to connect. Since I was on it for years I simply figured anyone I wanted to connect with or wanted to find me have done so by now.
For those of my readers who have accounts and wish to keep them, Bravo! There is no denying the entertainment value of Facebook. The memes are funny, the videos heartwarming and the occasional note from a friend can make a day. I am in no way advocating anything other than simply saying it was not for me. I have tilted at windmills before and hopefully will again.
I won't even get into the fact that Facebook has allowed terrorism (Levant and ISIS) elements a forum, but also is able to hook terrorists up with other terrorists through its Find-A-friend program. Zuckerman has apologized and said they will do something about it but it could take years to accomplish. Years?
I never thought my not being on Facebook would even be noticed. I got a message from old friend Dan K. in Oregon wondering if I left it because of all the privacy issues. I guess Dan knows me pretty well. Well, that's it, I guess. I'm still connected to the world through this blog, Messenger, email and texts, but I sure won't miss those damn cat videos.
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