DON’T JUST LOG OUT. DEACTIVATE FACEBOOK
Okay, so I did it. It wasn’t as hard for me as it is for others, but I snipped it. I cut it. I pulled the plug.
I broke up with Mark Zuckerberg.
Some friends might have known that I was toying with the idea for awhile, but I finally did it.
We all talk the talk. We complain and say we’re going to take the steps. For many reasons: lack of engagement with posts, hurt feelings, toxic commenters, a failed business, exiled from an organization, broken friendships, data safety, boycotting big corp, a stalker, and the list can continue.
Sometimes, all it takes is a brief brush with just one or two of those reasons above and you start to think, why do I put so much time into this?
Personally, I’ve ran several Facebook pages, personal profiles, and Facebook groups (by now, even in 2021, people somehow don’t know the difference between these three). To get views, likes, and shares, you need to get the attention of others; you have to show up in their news feed. On Facebook, you have to actually spend money to get attention.
Even if you have built up a large following, you still have to end up in others’ feeds to get those views, likes, and shares. When people start liking and sharing your posts, that’s when you will get even more likes and shares. They call it going viral.
If you’re a business person, you might have to get a thousand views (of just one post) to get 100 interactions. That might mean 2 sales of your book or CD. For a Facebook ad or post boost, you usually have to drop big dollars just to get minimal interactions.
I can’t do it anymore.
Facebook’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, is worth $137,000,000 (as of November 2021), and Facebook was launched only in 2004. It’s a free service, so you know what that means. If you’re not paying cash for a product, YOU are the product. Everything you enter onto Facebook is stored and sold.
I’m not a privacy expert, so I can’t go into the details that are more readily accessible from more qualified writers, but I do know that only big corporations and big governments can afford to place a man like Zuckerberg into the Top Five richest people in the world.
And he laughs.
A lot has been done to try to stop him from “taking over the world” with his Harvard dormitory invention, but no one will stop him. He’s also purchased businesses from his competitors, like WhatsApp and Instagram. There are many other small acquisitions that don’t even make the headlines because it’s so often, and he acquires them during their infancy stages.
And he laughs some more.
My brands will survive-both my authorship brand and my acting brand-without Facebook. Most of my auditions come by email or text, and my book sales never really increased no matter how much promotional marketing I paid for on Facebook. Most of my posts on my Facebook business/brand pages are ignored or missed, based on algorithms.
People just don’t see the posts, or they’re distracted by something more silly, like kitten videos or hateful Qanon re-shares.
Unless people purposely go looking for an outdated post about my writing or film appearances, they archive themselves into the Facebook void, probably making Zuckerberg a couple dollars somehow; selling it to some company or government. Corporations and government entities are the ones that want to know who I follow, what political books I’m writing, what agency I’m frequently messaging, and what civil rights film I’m attached to.
It’s not paranoia. I don’t do anything wrong. I just don’t like being used. I don’t get much love from Facebook.
I used to think that if I get people to like and follow my author or acting pages, I’ll make more sales or book future projects. Not really; nothing that seems to stand out. My book posts don’t get the likes or reference clicks. My acting page never brought a stranger to my inbox saying that they want to offer me a role based on my Facebook page.
It’s just not worth it.
MySpace came and went. Friendster came and went. Facebook is changing into Meta, and will eventually go (otherwise, why the re-brand?). People everywhere are logging off. Kids and teens don’t even rank Facebook in their top five choices for social media usage. The upcoming generation simply is not using Facebook.
I hate big business. I hate filthy rich people. I hate being used.
Many are logging off of Facebook for a few days as a boycott, but I urge others to go one step further: DEACTIVATE.
You can text friends and family. There are other ways to be in the know. There is email, RSS, Twitter (yes, that’s another story!), Discord.
Or maybe see people face-to-face?
Originally published at http://stevedustcircleus.wordpress.com on November 12, 2021.