The End of Facebook... for me
In the wake of the (fully unsurprising) revelation that Mark Zuckerberg intentionally permitted, throttled back, then re-permitted algorithmic promotion of hate speech for profit, I finally decided to leave. In doing so, I decided to start a list of all the reasons to leave vs. the reasons to stay.
I should have made this list years ago. The negatives so far outweigh the positives that quitting became the only logical solution. Why stay somewhere that's so awful?
People finding literally any reason to disagree or be contrary.
An algorithm that A. devalues attempts at promoting work, even among friends, B. promotes high traffic posts regardless of their content and thereby promotes hate speech, C. makes me see the same ONE post by the same ONE person over and over again instead of literally anything by the more than 1,000 other people I know.
Seeing the "laugh" react on posts about voting rights, LGBTQIA issues, and other very NOT funny topics. These issues aren’t funny, and “laughing” at them says an awful lot more about you than it does about the issue.
The anonymity that encourages people to constantly be at their worst.
Every discussion devolving into an either/or paradigm. No room for nuanced discussion.
People with tragic writing skills telling others "your an idiot."
The addiction to staying up too late scrolling for that one post that might make it worth the effort.
Getting added - without permission - to people's vanity projects veiled as well-intentioned social issues groups.
The internal monolog of how regular-ass events would sound as a Facebook post.
The annual reminder that one of my and Sheree's first dates was at what is now a mass shooting site.
Absolutism and cruelty in "education" about important issues. You can't claim to want to change people's minds if you're calling them a piece of shit. Just admit you either want them to have always believed exactly as you do (without giving them the time to learn as you did) or that you'd rather they be dead.
Links to bias-confirming articles where the author assumes everyone else is ignorant of something they just discovered and are very indignant about.
Reminders of friends long-dead.
Reminders of friendships long-dead.
Trashing on people's airing of grievances on their own page with a high and mighty "Let people enjoy things." I dunno - maybe, let people vent about shit or just keep scrolling? Would you grab someone's lips in real life and say "Shh" to them? No? Then maybe you're the one who needs to "Shh." Let people express themselves on their own pages. A post is not an invitation to judge someone, just an invitation to share in their experience. Don't want to share in their experience? Unfriend or Unfollow. We shouldn't feel obligated to view everyone's content just because we're "friends."
The assumption that - because we’re connected on Facebook - we’re actually friends.
The impulse to think "Everyone else needs to be as outraged by [this] as I am! To the Facebook machine to prove how aware/woke I am!"
Pearl clutching "OMG, one tiny thing happened - my neighborhood must be going to hell!" posts on suburban citizen pages. Just share data about when your ibuprofen-sponsored kickball league is playing and shut up, please.
Posting about going somewhere and having some well-meaning person say, "Hey, I'll be going there, too! Let's hang out!" No no. If I had wanted to meet up, I would have sent an invite.
Watching people give up their private information to social engineering scams and/or sharing nonsense that's easily debunked with minimal effort.
Dehumanization. Facebook has done to the general populace what military training used to do to soldiers. If you view your “enemies” as less than human it makes them easier to destroy.
False friends. People who sit there and quietly seethe at you for years, never telling you they have a problem with you. Then one day they just snap, berating you and attempting to publicly demoralize and assassinate your character. No one would do that face to face, but Facebook knows how much time those people spend looking at your posts (even though you don't) and keeps promoting your content to them until they can't handle it anymore and just blow up at you. Yeah, I don't need that.
The desire to post random annoyances as grievances. Then you have a whole discussion about something completely unimportant that frequently devolves into a battle involving self-righteous folks saying "Try to see things from others' perspectives!" without a hint of irony that they're refusing to see the event from the perspective of the person whining about it, and people insisting they have a right to be frustrated with that random stupid thing.
The shitheels who turn even the kindest or most innocuous posts into an opportunity to bash an unrelated group. E.g. "owning the libs"
Treating people like shit for asking harmless questions.
Perverts who constantly friend request people (particularly women) who have no interest in them.
People who are mean to my wife because we got married.
Sincere birthday messages.
My wife's content (though I'm sure she'll text it to me).
Snarky takedowns of malignant trolls.
The even half-baked attempts at identifying missing stairs in the theatre community.
Giving the laugh react to well-placed GIFs.
Photos of my friends' trips and daily events.
Reminders of good times had.
Reminders of lessons learned.