This could be my last post on Facebook but it probably won’t be because apparently I can be some sort of masochist.
Rant time: It’s “nice” that Facebook can barrage me with a constant stream of horrific memories of 9/11 on September 12. I mean, why be timely when you can relive the sad desperation of that horrible day over and over again, day after day, to garner more ad money for this service? 9/11/01 was a tragedy, no doubt, and some of the posts I read yesterday were quite touching and thoughtful. But today is September 12 and I strive to move forward with my life. But Facebook, in all its “infinite wisdom” wants me to wallow on sorrow, just like the barrage of Father’s Day ads I see every year, even though I have told Facebook several times that my father is deceased. Why am I still on this thing? I really have no idea other than everyone seems to be afraid of venturing outside of Facebook these days. To share is to Facebook. Most folks like echo chambers and their news fed to them by Facebook. I seek. I search. I learn. If you want to contact me, text me. Email me. Follow my idiotic tweets. Read my blog. Heck, if you’re shy and don’t want to talk to me, I’ll set up a free voicemail account and you do the same and we’ll exchange voicemails. Write me a letter. Step outside of this walled garden of growing idiocracy, there’s a beautiful world out there.
When I finally deleted my Facebook account and walked away, for weeks it was very, very, hard not to log back in and let it reactivate. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when the account was “permanently” deleted, but for YEARS afterward I fought the urge to log back in. It’s an addiction as heroin (never used heroin, but I can imagine Facebook is what it was like).
My advice? Unless you have a very good reason to keep your Facebook account open, CLOSE it. WALK AWAY, and rely on other, somewhat less-toxic social networks. As I recently posted, Twitter was my Methodone, but lately I’ve even been able to be away from that for long stretches and feel no withdrawal at all.
And on Instagram I stopped following everyone who was posting nothing but political bullshit. As I wrote, my Instagram feed is now back to what it was prior to 11/8/16: bears, vinyl collectors, men who apparently don’t own a single shirt among the lot of them, drag queens, d-list celebrities, and alcoholics…
Good luck, my friend!