Member-only story
I left Facebook on December 31, 2018 for four reasons: 1) the data breaches, 2) the mistaken idea that connection only happens on Facebook, 3) the addictive nature of scrolling, and 4) the suffering of the content moderators who have to see (and can never unsee) all the horrific stuff that gets deleted so we don’t have to experience it.
It’s humbling to realize that you can’t live your life without causing suffering somewhere. Even walking outside, you could be unwittingly stepping on an insect and ending its life. I start with that sentence because it’s reason number 4 that pushed me over the edge in the first place. But here I am, back on Facebook.
It was an interesting loneliness. I did feel a little left out, but not terribly. Any of the more important information, I got anyway because my wife was still on. Still. Being off social media didn’t necessarily make me more active directly with my friends. They’re busy. I mean, truly — not just ‘make work busy’. They’ve got jobs, families, lives, obligations. Almost every spare minute is spoken for. So I didn’t meet with them in person any more often, or even talk to them on the phone.
I was probably thinking that if I get off Facebook, the actual world will go back to John Boy days from the Waltons, where we all gathered around the table for meals, and friends saw each other…
