To my Facebook friends, family, and real-world friends, whether we’ve seen each other in the last 50-odd years or not:
I’ve become pretty tired of spending most of my days and too many nights looking through posts and articles and commenting on Facebook to the detriment of other, more productive things. For one, writing a novel based on some real-world experiences I’ve had overseas, specifically in China.
Recently, I’ve grown to hate Facebook, and I’d like to explain why, so maybe some of you who have been sitting on the fence as I was might identify with me and jump down on one side or the other.
Facebook creates attention deficit, unless you’ve already got a case of it. It’s like ESPN morphed itself into the post-9/11 CNN News ticker, and that morphed itself into Facebook’s news feed. It shows you what it calculates you might be interested in, and makes you physically choose to see things from all the friends whom you follow in the order in which they’re posted. They’re taking liberties, and it’s affecting your life, as well as mine. I’m fucking mad as hell, and I’m fucking not going to fucking take it anymore.
Can you tell I’m sick of it?
Another of Facebook’s sins is that it fosters digital pseudo-relations between people. Example: You now only have to click when Facebook reminds you it’s someone’s birthday. And then, in return for the favor, the bastards self-servingly give you the option to send a gift card from one of their sponsors to give it that little extra personal touch. Digitally, of course. But they’re sticking that digit right up your ass, and they’ve all got dirty, untrimmed fingernails.
OK, so Hallmark is an old medium, and between the cost of a card and a stamp, it’s five bucks per occasion. What’s more important is that you know the birthdays of people you really care about, and you either have their email addresses (lame) or phone numbers, so you can call them on your unlimited talk & text plan. This way they know they matter to you, and will hopefully extend the same courtesy when it’s your birthday.
You’ll notice if and when you see this post that I’ve begun purging my account by taking the time (before I wrote this) to manually delete as many of the pictures I’ve posted that Facebook will allow me to delete, including my profile and cover pictures.
I also deleted and/or blocked a couple of people about whom, under any circumstances, I didn’t give a fuck. So, if you’re reading this, I do value your friendship.
And as you can probably guess, I’m about to shit-can my Facebook account for all of the above reasons, and some others I haven’t mentioned, although at some point I might. However I’m taking feedback via PRIVATE MESSAGES ONLY, but only for the next week or month, or whenever I stop getting the private messages asking where/how I can be reached online.
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