This was my last FB post a long time back . . .

Social Media

To all my FB friends (and anyone who gives a fuck).

In case anyone is wondering why they do not see me here much anymore, I will explain.

My children introduced me to FB and social media in general a decade ago now. I have made many friends the globe over and watched the medium grow into something I detest on Ethical grounds. For me this all came to a head during the last political cycle, like a zit left too long unpopped and grown infected.

I have shared in the past the research which shows beyond any doubt that ALL social media platforms (FB, Twitter and any other you might use) are designed to be addictive, for profit. Every time you get a like or a share your brain responds with dopamine, so even if you did not like the response, you nonetheless like the cyber-attention, which our brains cannot differentiate from actual human attention.

In short it makes you feel good, and creates a feel good dopamine response, even if it also made you angry.

That is the core of addiction, feeling good, and denying any actual consequence which might be negative.

BUT, that is the mere tip of the Social Media Iceberg.

Since 2014 Powers and agencies, from corporations to nation states have been using Social Media platforns to cause dissent and sway opinions, and most disturbingly, to create outright falsehoods and thereby cause distrust of any and all media. These activities were so heavy during the 2016 cycle that I spent hours vetting things daily, looking to see where it came from and if it had merit.

THAT is the job for professional journalists, who have the time and resources to undertake it. Such people have standards, and are schooled in HOW to vett properly, but no old school media can Vett the sheer volume that Social Media puts out, so they too have fallen victim to false stories and misleading posts, simply by trusting a source, which trusted a source, which in the end was not trustworthy.

INSTEAD, they are asking users, often unschooled on the process, the vett things themselves.

THIS is all compunded by the very design of Social Media, which is chock full of user driven content, like this post. So when you view a post, algorythms kick in sending more posts of a similar nature in the very same way they send you ads after you search for a product. Does not matter your position or view on any topic, once you view, and even moreso once you click like, or share, those programs start feeding you more things like that UNVETTED.

In this way Social Media speaks to all of us inside the paradigm we inhabit, inside our personal bubbles. This accentuates the Good feelings because we are more often than not seeing posts which align with our views.

THIS causes triablism and isolation of ALL groups, we only hear what we like to hear for the most part, and every time we like or share something we see more of the same thing we like. so it makes the walls of our isolated cyber bubbles THICKER.

Combined with false narratives, "Fake News"; Alternative Facts have become a thing, rather than the oxymoron they are, allowing us all to be manipulated by Social Media itself and the programs which guide it. This allowed Social Media to be used as a Cyber Weapon of Destruction, to sow distrust and dissent against ALL poiints of view in our nation, each against the other.

It is intelligence warfare designed to divide and conquer us, to make us so busy fighting each other over little matters, that Big matters go unaddressed. EVERY inteligence agency agrees on this YET none of the corporations which own Social Media have taken any serious steps to rectify this.

That might lessen their bottom line.

Since the corporations involved are more interested in profit than our nation itself, and since the leaders of the nation are taking no action I have only one way to protect myself from an endless diet of outright Bullshit.

I turned it off.
I turned off all the notifications, all the bells and whistles.
I no longer check it to see what my cybers compatriots are doing.
I do not post often, if at all
BUT I leave it open in case I might need to get ahold of family.
It is no longer a visible button on my destop to click, no longer an app which rings my phone.
I have to make an EFFORT.
I have to type in the addy, and I just don't do that often.

IF the corporations are not willing to protect US from BS affecting our democratic institutions
IF the nations leaders will not take steps to do the same
THEN there is ONLY one way to get these issues dealt with, INDIVIDUAL ACTION.

IF 25% of FB users just stopped posting, leaving some message like this, maybe they might get the hint.
IF 50% do, they likely will
IF the MAJORITY does, then they will act.

So If you do not like being fed BS by social media, BOYCOTT IT.
Our wallets speak louder than any outcry.

Peace.

Temper tantrums never work.

FB can indeed be an unhealthy addiction. In fact, the guy who invented the FB "like" now has gone public saying he regrets doing it, believing that it's changing people's brains. Each "like" is like a little enorphin "hit".

That said I think the antidote to FB is just a better social media platform that is more organically designed, represents less concentration of power and privilege, and is more self aware and responsible in the kinds of interactions it encourages. In fact ... I'd regard THIS site as a decent antidote, at least for my purposes.

I'm only on FB because my daughter is, I get a ton of family news and photos that way. I literally wouldn't bother otherwise. I probably look at it once a week. My daughter is the one person in my life that just isn't accessible outside of FB. She doesn't check her email daily, her phone is off half the time, but she's almost an open-book stream of consciousness on FB.

Our neighborhood association has a facebook "page" and I belong to that but could live without it. Anything of importance that's posted there, is generally emailed to all members anyway.

The only other social media platform I'm on is Twitter, and my use of it is mostly passive. I use it as a selective news and information feed.

To me FB is just another source of information. I use it to commend and question. To me the habit of sharing to everyone is a big problem and I delete any messages that have no use for me. When I share I select only those the might want to see the link. Also, I limit individuals as friends. Most of my links are with organizations. I limit my time on it and am very selective. I could live without it but do often get good information about some of my groups.