All good things come to an end.
All good things decay unless they are reclaimed and restored. That’s not going to happen with Facebook. They are too far gone.
I want you as a part of my life without Facebook mediating or manipulating our relationship.
I opened a Facebook account in January of 2007. It was a fun way to connect with family and friends all over the world. Nearly fourteen years later, the experience is completely different – it’s almost entirely negative.
I login to see what is happening and log out asking myself why I put myself through the Facebook psychological meat grinder.
A few years ago, Facebook decided to race to the bottom of the human brainstem and manipulate people. I will not be manipulated. AND I don’t like seeing my friends manipulated.
Admittedly, daily dopamine hits are a difficult addiction to break. But, so were drugs and alcohol.
Dumpster fires are hard NOT to watch – particularly when people are throwing huge amounts of fuel on them.
Facebook has turned into a relational dumpster fire. People have said things on Facebook that ended friendships that began before Facebook crossed Mark Zuckerberg’s mind. Some of those friendships were formed before Zuckerberg was born and were ended on his platform. He (and others) decided to run a social experiment and make some loot. I’ll champion anyone’s right to build a business and create legitimate profits providing goods and services. The problem is the once ‘good Facebook’ transformed into a cruel Mr. Hyde… or maybe more like Nurse Ratched.
There is something fundamentally flawed with the Facebook business model. As I’ve written about Google, the two tech titans share many of the same tactics and strategies. Neither platform is friendly or pro-user. They both manipulate and use people for profit and power.
While I will not blame societal breakdowns totally on the world’s largest social media platform, I will say Facebook has contributed to the problem. What is most troubling is they profit off the dumpster fire not caring that the people involved are image-bearers and have value (regardless of their views).
So, I’ve decided to step away from Facebook. I don’t have any plans to move to another platform. The biggest challenge will be staying connected with many friends and a acquaintances from the platform.
I’m going to allow a few days to pass before stepping away to connect with anyone who wants to stay connected off the platform.
I’m also going back to good old fashioned face-to-face meetings, phone calls and a Zoom meeting here and there. I’ll be focusing on my work, a couple big projects and writing. Feel free to visit and connect.
As I said at the outset, I want you to be a part of my life without Facebook mediating or manipulating our relationship.
Perhaps our paths will cross again. You can contact me here.
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keep up the good word!
Luigi, God willing, I will try 🙂
Great to hear from you pal.
Blessings
100% agree with your words. Facebook is an enemy of free speech and a constant divider. I personally have moved onto Parler but I’m also not on as much these days.
Lauren, I’m disappointed in Facebook. There was so much value in the beginning (particularly prior to their public offering and listing on the stock exchange).
I’ve seen and heard quite a few people moving to Parlor. Personally, I’m just trying to think through the purpose of social media and how I ought to engage with it (or not). Whatever social media was 10 years ago, it is not now – different world.
Thanks and blessings
Lance, I totally agree with you. The only reason I ever got an FB account was for work, to be a part of a ministry’s group. But now, I don’t even bother checking it. It’s still a positive group, but I don’t feel the need to keep up with people artificially. I have always detested social media and much prefer in-person meetings and phone calls. We’ve got to get back to that. We have to remind ourselves that we survived before social media, and I would imagine in many ways we were better off.
Christy. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciated Facebook in the beginning prior to it’s public listing as a publicly traded company. Once FB was forced to answer to Wall Street and investors, they changed to a surveillance business model and focused on selling personal data and ads. From there it went downhill. It was essentially a “race to the bottom.” I wrote extensively about Google’s business model last year (Google – Friend of Foe).
To your point (I think), Facebook is played out and moving toward irrelevancy. I think we’ll see a live demonstration of what Jim Collins wrote about in his book, “How the Mighty Fall.” Facebook took a good innovation and transformed it into a vehicle for people to immerse themselves in the unending “dumpster fire.”
As you can tell, I have some pretty strong opinions about FB and Social Media in general.