Goodbye Facebook
The Borg or Facebook?
Dare I leave Facebook?
If I do, I'll miss all the reunion, birth and wedding notices; sad death announcements; animated birthday reminders; envy inducing travel photos and political outrage postings; rantings about climate change, and food we should and shouldn't eat; belly laugh inducing posters; weird animal photographs and videos; and postings about where you are, what you're doing and what your eating at any particular moment. It was good to reconnect with so many people who I thought were lost in the ether of time.
But, there's plenty I won't miss. I won't miss the hours it keeps me away from actually living my life, looking where I'm walking, reading a book, writing or perusing the news. Then there's the randomized sequencing of postings, the videos that play automatically, Facebook's friend suggestions (strangers I've never heard of), proposals from non-profit organizations I should join, and endless advertising I never asked for.
Some of my friends either refuse to join or were highly reluctant to join the Facebook world. My attitude had always been, "Well, I've got nothing to hide, so why not?" But, I think differently now because of Facebook's data sucking and sharing without my consent and it's leaders total lack of conscious. It does all kinds of things without asking permission. Remember those personality tests we all took in 2016 that were actually just programs stealing our personal information for political sabotage? How about the memory "stories" it creates automatically from photos you posted? Or the false and real hacking of our accounts? Enough is enough. All I ever wanted was a simple subscription service that doesn't throw ads at me and doesn't suck up my data.
Facebook has become a virtual death star. My suspicions were confirmed this morning after listening to the NPR's 1A broadcast, "Why we keep forgiving Facebook". 1A's host, Joshua Johnson interviewed Roger McNamee, an early investor and mentor to Mark Zuckerberg and author of the new book “Zucked: The Education of an Unlikely Activist”. It's clear that Facebook's tragically flawed business model and the stupidity of its leaders are the root cause. The lack of security and privacy, ignorance about its ability to destroy our culture and democratic government, and its reinforcing filters of our biases have given birth to today's chaos and total my frustration with this online platform. Do give the podcast a listen here. Without regulation, we are likely lost. But, I won't wait for regulation.
Therefore, on February 15th I'm giving myself a Valentine's Day present. I'm deleting my Facebook account. I'll continue to share my thoughts and experiences through my Dare I? blog. If you normally read the blog on Facebook and want to keep reading, you'll need to click on the FOLLOW button inside the blog. You'll then receive an email notification with a link, when I post. Please comment through the blog, send a LinkedIn message, or email or text me directly when you have something to share. And, remember, I'm not rejecting my friends. I'm rejecting the platform on which we've been communicating.
Staying connected will take more work on my part. I know that Facebook made me a lazy communicator. Text, email and, perhaps, be still my heart, a hand written note will be needed now and then. Hopefully, my communication with you will be more meaningful than the cryptic "I agree" and "Congratulations!" and "Wow!" comments on Facebook posts.