No Facebook?

I decided recently that it was time for me to leave Facebook after a good friend of mine had made the same conclusion. I've flirted with this idea for a long time, but frankly it was the decision of Mark Zuckerberg to remove tampons from the men's bathrooms at his company that tipped the scales for me. How petty, how small, how hateful! I can almost excuse the stripping of DEI initiatives out of a sense of "investor awareness" or "prevailing corporate sentiment" in the company. This is something altogether too gleefully hateful, like spitting on a person you've just beaten to a bloody pulp. Was that really necessary, Mark? I have three LGBTQ members in my seven-member household and another two in my extended family, including two trans folk, and that's not even including my various friends and acquaintances. I am an ally because I love them and I know their struggles to be real and worth fighting for.

Facebook does have its merits, sorta. I recently had a graduation party I tried to organize on Facebook, but it wasn't until I started directly messaging people that I really got responses. So I asked myself, what good is this thing anymore? Facebook Marketplace is basically just Craigslist. I don't use Facebook Groups at all. That's what Reddit is for, for me. I know for some people, including my lovely wife, it would be very difficult to leave, and may even view the act of staying as an act of hope and faith in humanity and discourse. I applaud those who know themselves well enough to make that kind of well-considered decision and roll with it.

Another aspect of this, for me, is the rage factor. I've felt pretty sick to my stomach and unable to do anything about it for months. The election, the lead-up, the aftermath, everything. Yuck! This is one small thing I can control, and fuck it, it's an easy band-aid for me to rip off. I've been teetering at this edge for years. For what it's worth, I did start out with a pro/con list when I started writing this article, and it's posted below. But at some point, the "fuck Mark Zuckerberg" came flowing out of me so fast and readily that I was like, "this isn't productive anymore, Siefken, everyone gets what you're saying." Anyway...

Pros of Facebook

• Lots of people there I wouldn't have the ability to contact easily otherwise.
• Get an idea of what various people are up to.
• Pictures of kids and pets.

Cons of Facebook

• I really only interact with a tiny fraction of the people in my friends list, like I could count them on one hand. It's only marginally more interesting than NextDoor, which is the social networking equivalent of trying to get useful information out of peeling apart a wet newspaper.
• I know several people who just never started using Facebook and they still happily exist in the real world just fine. I like that a lot. I strive to be one of these people.
• Most folks are generally too squeamish about sharing anything meaningful or candid on FB, it's just not all that ... fun? I get better interaction over text and email, which honestly is a better way to reach out to people (and so I'm planning to do more of this).
• My parents now have digital picture frames I can send photos to directly, so it's really easy to keep them in the loop which is like 40% of why I've stayed as long as I have.
• Even as much as there's a shift in favor of "free speech" on the platform, bots still police what you say, and it's definitely swayed by whatever the politics of the moment are. Fuck that! I have my own place where I can dump my thoughts for the world to ignore. I don't need FB for this.
• There's a lot of junk to sift through, low quality memes and ads. It's not a good use of my time. I can get better random bullshit content on Reddit.
• The power of this platform empowers Mark Zuckerberg to...
  1. Abandon the facade of progressive leadership he had worn during the past 4 years in favor of clear "tech bro" machoism.
  2. Shrug off clear attempts by other governments to seed misinformation and fake sentiment. If you're going to maintain a platform, take some responsibility for it!
  3. Run a company that has proactively decided to Trump itself up for the new administration. Again, fuck that!
  4. Continue to build an empire based entirely on information about my life. At least other companies that do this, like Google, can offer services I really care about.

So anyway, I'm leaving Facebook for good on January 29th 2025, in one week. I'm leaving the post up for people who use the platform semi-regularly to see as a courtesy - I'll post my contact information on there as well as in here.

Lest anyone be worried that this will mean less connection and outreach, be not afraid! I decided a while ago that Wednesday was my "socials" day and I plan to send out an email blast to anyone who wants to hear about what's going on in our lives lately.

If you need to get hold of me, check out this page.

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