There's No Escape
Social-media
My leaving social media started out when I shut down my Facebook page about three months ago. I posted a "good-bye" message then closed the account. I felt relieved. I was tired of the endless adverts, the pictures of grandchildren I don't know, the whiplash of political postings, other people's dinner plates, and irrelevant comments about all of the above.
In addition, everything about me was being tracked. How else would I get a luggage ad within minutes of booking an air flight? I wanted to own myself again. I wanted to regain time; the time I spent reading posts and scrolling through the nonsense of day-to-day efforts to make lives appear cheery and bright. Real life, that's what we don't post. The stuff about loss, failing health, family drama and our continuing stupid mistakes.
Yes, there were things I missed -- the birthdays automatically remembered, seeing what's going on in our own children's lives (at least two of mine, both over 40, live on Facebook) and the comical posts that made me laugh out loud. My grandsons, now in their 20's, are available at the "send" of a text. They don't use Facebook -- so old school to them.
But I came back on last week despite my conflicted feelings about Facebook. Why? Well, it's because people kept asking me, "Did you stop your blog?"
"Well, no I didn't," I proclaim. I confess that I didn't realize how many of my readers used my Facebook posts that announced new blog entries to access my writing. So, I'm back on Facebook.
The good news is that in those few months Facebook has made changes to make my user experience a bit better. After puttering about the settings pages, I was able to make selected posts public, limit the adverts that appear on my news feed, and hide posts on my news feed if I so desire. These are steps forward, but my data is still not my own. Facebook scoops when we're not looking.
Now if only I can limit the time I spend looking at posts -- ah, discipline. I don't want to make Facebook a time suck again. I'll give myself 20 minutes once a day to scroll and read. Kind of like how I discipline my exercise -- out by 7:30 AM to walk my 10,000 steps, then I'm done or I don't do it.
Does that make sense?