Good-riddance to Facebook’s lies and dangerous do-nothings.
Dumping Facebook. Again.
I know, I know – IV Words has been down this road before. But this is for good. Pinky swear. Like, double-dog, dude.
Not only is Facebook, as both a company and a platform, unworthy of support; it is undermining democracy and damaging public health.
Besides, I don’t want to do anything that further enriches Mark Zuckerberg. I mean, look at the guy – he drips arrogance, exudes entitlement and doesn’t even come close to presenting as a decent human being.
As I write this, on Oct. 12, 2021, it’s a year to the day that I returned to Facebook following a brief departure on Sept. 21, 2020. Re-reading now what I posted when I went back to the platform last year, I’m shamed. It sounds like exactly what it was – a guy trying really hard to rationalize, if not justify, doing the wrong thing.
Looking back, all the reasons I left in the first place are still valid, and there are even more now. Most recently, Congressional testimony before a congressional committee by a former employee and comprehensive, independent investigations have outed Facebook as a bald-faced liar.
And here’s a confession – I went back last year because traffic to IV Words dropped precipitously when I was no longer sharing new posts on my pages and in climate change and social justice Facebook groups.
Certainly I want more people to read the posts, especially the ones about the crucial need to address the climate crisis. But continuing to use Facebook would be enabling something that harms others. Once I admitted that to myself, what I needed to do became crystal clear. People will visit the blog and read posts or they won’t; either way, I’ll no longer push them on Facebook.
Once again, I hear a voice telling me that it’s never too late to do the right thing.
And this time I’m doing it the right way. My actions last year was half-assed; leaving Facebook but not Instagram, a Facebook-owned property, meant I was still supporting a company in a drive for greater riches that are gained by spreading disinformation and allowing content that destroys self images and mental health.
So sayonara, Facebook. It’s not bloody likely, but here’s hoping enough people follow suit to crash and burn the platform.
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6 Comments
Paulie · November 11, 2021 at 11:44 am
I can’t count the number of times that I’ve “dumped” Facebook or the many more times that I’ve cursed and contemplated dumping Facebook.
Yet, here I sit, still on Facebook.
I’m going to go through the rationalization that countless others have gone through (probably yourself as well, before you actually pulled the plug).
I have my friends and family who I see and talk to on a fairly regular basis. Some are on FB, while others, like my son, have bailed on FB. These people and my relationships with them are not part of my problem.
My problem is with the others who I would probably lose touch with if it weren’t for FB; distant family members in Italy, the music professor in Southern California who has become a dear, trusted friend and the former classmates who I forgot existed until we somehow hooked up again through – yes FB.
If it weren’t for FB I would never have known about the passing of my high school track coach.
So there’s some value in FB that compels me to cling to it even though I realize what a harmful vehicle it is. Call me a weakling and a hypocrite.
For a while, I had a separate FB page dedicated to my blog. It did nothing for me, barely moved the needle. So I dumped it. Even posts that I put on my personal page don’t get much play through FB. Funny thing, most friends and family don’t even read my blog – go figure.
I don’t do much on FB anymore. Since I’ve stopped blogging, I don’t link to posts. Mostly I just scroll down the page in the morning and again in the evening without commenting. I use Messenger more than anything.
I have dumped Twitter. I had an account and grew a fair sized following but I just couldn’t stomach Twitter. I have very few friends on Twitter and I’ve found it to be overflowing with weirdness, inappropriateness, pettiness and downright nastiness.
So, congratulations on our recent divorce from Zuckerberg. Everyone who I know who’s made that same move all say more or less the same thing, “I’ve never looked back.”
SoundEagle 🦅ೋღஜஇ · October 20, 2021 at 9:25 pm
Dear Martin C. “Red” Fredricks IV,
Good riddance indeed! Welcome to leaving Facebook and Instagram forever.
I can’t agree with you more regarding the various issues pertaining to such social media, about which I have meticulously discussed in my extensive, analytical and multidisciplinary post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“, which can be easily located at the Home page of my website.
I commend you highly for your commitment and resolve.
May you find the rest of 2021 very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, reading, thinking and composing whatever posts that take your intellectual fancy or show off your imaginative flight and analytical rigour!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
Martin C. Fredricks IV · October 20, 2021 at 9:27 pm
Thanks! And likewise to you. 😀
sportyboy99 · October 14, 2021 at 6:28 am
Please let that voice be right – it is never too late to do the right thing. Much respect from this end, brother. Where are you going to go for the sourcing that you were getting from mental-health-destroying FB?
Martin C. Fredricks IV · October 14, 2021 at 9:13 am
Hey, John: I’m not quite sure I understand your question completely, but I think you’re asking for sources about the negative mental-health impacts of Facebook. I was referring more to Facebook as a company that owns Instagram in that sentence, but there are lots of articles and studies about negative impacts to mental health and self-image of using Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms out there. Here’s one – https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health. Have a great day, Brother. Martin
Dammit. - IV Words - The Progressive Perspective · November 15, 2021 at 1:56 pm
[…] left the distortion machine that is Facebook for the second time a month ago (10/13/21), swearing never to return. Yet, today, I’m back. On Instagram, […]