Many people post manifestos when they leave Facebook, as if they are nailing their words to the door of the Facebook Cathedral. Why should I be any different?
The TL;DR summary is that I got tired of pretending to have more friends than I actually have. If they can’t be bothered to stay in touch in *all* the other ways available to us in 2017, then there wasn’t that much friendship to begin with.
Dear Facebook friends and contacts:
I’m eliminating Facebook from my online life.
I remain on on Instagram (yes, I KNOW). I remain on Twitter for now at least, and I have email, and a damn website, *and* a couple of carefully neglected ERRRR curated blogs.
I don’t need to tell you that that this platform makes its users into marks in return for ease of use and shiny things to click. Or the privacy issues that make even the most paranoid conspiracy enthusiasts struggle to keep up.
(Monitoring what I type and DON’T send? Why yes, please I just wanna see more more MOAR CONTENT.)
But more than anything I resent Facebook for injecting itself into personal connections I have miraculously maintained and treasured over a lifetime that has already lasted a decade longer than I expected.
I have finally overcome the feeling that nobody will care about me unless I post and entertain them. That’s such an childish attitude. One that I have recognized in several students during my experience at the local high school.
And it’s an attitude nurtured by this supremely manipulative platform.
The blunt portion of this letter follows and I mean it without malice. But it’s the most important part:
If leaving Facebook means we no longer communicate, there wasn’t much deep communication to begin with, just superficiality. It means you all meant more to me than I meant to you. And I’m no longer afraid of losing that.
Hell, as far as 99% of you know I’ve been dead for years and this account is another FB artificial intelligence experiment. Or some punkass in Russia. Or the White House. Same diff. (heh)
I hope to be around. But this account goes dark at midnight tonight.
Thank you.
C
2017 December 02
The Bent Road
Meadows of Dan, VATwitter @clydeleesmith
Instagram @k4doh
Email cls at clydeleesmith.com
Gmail clydeleesmith at gmail.com
Web http://clydeleesmith.com