Disengaging from Facebook

So I’ll keep this brief in the hope that this will be more widely read: I’m going to be cutting my Facebook use to a minimum, and would like to make it clear what that entails.

tl;dr please text or e-mail me to keep in touch!

At risk of sounding paranoid, I’ve noticed my News Feed has been less ‘reliable’ again (for lack of a better word). I mentioned similar issues in my first post here on Medium, and for a while I’d cut back on my Facebook & social media use, but then slipped back into the addicting ‘blue scroll.’ More recently though, I’ve noticed the News Feed won’t refresh with more than 6–10 posts. It has more ads than in the past — nearly every 3rd or 4th post, instead of maybe 1 in 10. Even when I select the chronological feed, I see stories from 3 or more days ago mixed in with posts from the past hour or two. There are numerous other issues I can’t think of to detail now, and this is all on top of obvious privacy, ethics, and political concerns we hear about daily.

What does this mean for you, though? Well, somewhat unfortunately, a lot of a groups, causes, and folks I know or am involved with use Facebook to promote their events or activities, and I have to admit this has been a useful feature. As such, I’m not (for now) deactivating my Facebook profile. However, because I can link the Facebook Events calendar to my Google Calendar, I’ll only be checking it once or twice a week for event updates to sync to my Google account. I will not be using or responding to Messenger messages. I will be untagging and deleting photos and posts, and so please do not tag me or use it as a platform to share media with me. I’ll also no longer comment on posts, and although I know this will crush many of you, I’ll also no longer be Liking or reacting to posts or comments.

I’ve already mostly switched to getting my news and other content from radio, podcasts, e-mails, and RSS/feeds through Feedly. I prefer Google Chat, texting, and e-mail to keep in touch directly. Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp are also options. I rarely use Instagram, and don’t plan to increase that or pick Twitter or other actual social media up again.

If you have suggestions or would like to try another good way to keep in touch, please reach out to me via e-mail or my phone number. If you don’t have those, I’ll be watching Facebook/Messenger for the coming week (through July 21), so send me a message on there and I’ll happily follow up with you. Again, this is not a goodbye, but an overdue step towards a healthier personal and social life. Talk to you soon!