Applying Some Wisdom-Goodbye Facebook!

  I was working on some drawings of Owls for my February day planner pages to support the theme "Be Wise".  It was during the cathartic peace of scratching out the birds on my tablet that I decided I needed to apply some wisdom and remove things from my life that  I believe have become detractors- starting with Facebook.  I realized, for me, it is not only a significant time waster, but also that  it wasn't adding much benefit or happiness to my life these days. 

 To avoid any conjecture as to my rationale, I am providing the three primary reasons,detailed below. 

1)      I miss my friends! What used to be a fun way to connect with friends is now a platform where I hardly ever see friends!  Yes, you can change some settings to see specific friends (which I have repeatedly, not to mention the options are ever changing), but there is no setting to see ALL of my friends.  I am forced to choose who I want to see the most, and I think that defeats the purpose, don't you? I don't want Facebook picking who they think I should see after I choose the maximum allotted 30 friends--that is absurd!

Too much garbage, propaganda and hate!  

a.       GARBAGE: “You won’t believe what this grandma did!”  “This woman caught her husband cheating.  You won’t believe what happens next!”  This kind of sensationalized "news/entertainment" media nonsense, fake/subjective/biased news, and business promo spam clog up my feed in lieu of friends which is completely antagonistic to the reason why I'm on Facebook to begin with.

      b.       PROPAGANDA: I am tired of the talking heads, the multiple “experts”, and social media voices attempting to persuade me to believe nonsense. I want to be informed by real data, real information--not a person with an opinion, politician, doctor, lawyer, activist, news anchor, show host, YouTuber, celebrity, etc. as to what I should think and why, while rebuking me if I feel differently or question them.  I believe I will be better informed if I take the time to research the facts rather than waste my time on Facebook listening to someone spew partial or biased facts.  Don't get me wrong, I feel they have every right to do so-- i just don't want it in my feed which is not an option as it stands. 

      c.      HATE: The rally cry of the day seems to be tolerance, but I have never seen more intolerance in my lifetime than I have the last few years, and especially in 2020. I have friends of all walks of life, across the political spectrum, with varying religions, and all kinds of opinions. As such I have seen friends post something only to be shredded in comments in the most vile and disgusting ways. People are very vocal in stating their position "Only idiots refuse to wear a mask!"  "Paranoid people wear masks!" "Trump supporters are stupid and uneducated" "Biden supporters are progressive morons!"  This kind of discourse is not productive, makes mass assertions on people groups without conversation and closes the door to reasoning with each other.  This behavior is also promulgated in the aforementioned propaganda. Tolerance in the 2020’s seems to have veered from the "Power of endurance; act of enduring; toleration;- feeling habit or practice of bearing with and not seeking to coerce those whose opinions, actions, etc., differ from our own; indulgence”1 to an excuse to viciously castigate those who do not agree with what one believes should be tolerated vice not tolerated. It is too easy for anyone, me included, to get caught up in the these virtual exchanges. However, attempts at  reasoning always fail when the conversation quickly turns hyper-emotional as is the case with many comment threads. I want no part of the hate.

Censorship vice Freedom of Speech!  There are people I know, people I follow, businesses I like and ministries I support that have all been censored for the most idiotic of reasons over the last several years. What is happening now with the calls and rampant acceptance of technology leaders, media, and politicians to determine what is and is not allowable, and who should and should not be allowed to use their services is eerily similar to the propaganda and censorship campaign in 1930’s Germany (you can read a brief description here: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda-and-censorship.) I don’t like a lot of what people say, but the right to protect people’s ability to say it is important and I denounce those who make light of that freedom by assuming they are the arbiters for what “free speech” means.  By controlling what people see and hear and consistently curating data to the individual, they limit the conversation of opposing thoughts. Take Pinterest for example.  When it started, you would see all kinds of amazing things, some you never thought of or saw before,  that encouraged you to broaden your horizons. Now, if I look at a picture of a turtle, I see tons of turtles in my home feed.  I have to manually go through clicking antics to NOT see turtles.  While a silly example, this kind of curation when it comes to social culture lessens one’s view of the world, social entities, people groups, opinions, and experiences until folks begin to believe that what they are seeing is the norm, majority, and expectation--everyone loves turtles, apparently.  Anything outside of this virtual bubble can soon seem unusual and possibly negative. How much more polarized have we become this last decade?  I firmly believe one contributor is the curation-induced microcosms that technology giants have forced on their users.

        I will miss my friends for sure, but the sad truth is, I don't really see you much anyways the way things work now. Facebook no longer brings me happiness, but instead incites more aggravation, frustration, and headaches. I will be closing my account down Jan 23^rd to allow me to get things in order. If you want to stay in touch, drop me a line. I am sure there are better ways to maintain our friendship!

1 1871 The Cabinet Dictionary of the English Language