CW: Politics
I acknowledge that I’m being a drama queen about something that many people are doing without fuss.
I still feel a need to record, at least for myself, why I made the decision. I also want to record why I’m delaying the implementation of that decision.
Why leave?
The straw the broke the camel’s back was the news that FB had removed the emoticons or colors (or something like that) that represented LGBTQIA+ people. I may have this wrong; I’m not familiar with icons and decorations since I try not to use them. But that doesn’t mean that others don’t use them and get value from them.
Whatever it was exactly, it sounded to me to be so petty and judgemental. It’s just a few colors and bits of artwork. Why not let those use them who want to use them?
Then, of course, FB announced its new content moderation policies.
The writing’s on the wall: FB is going to become what Xitter has become: a self-referential ball of prejudice and hatred.
I may be a cis-gendered straight white male who doesn’t use flag emojis, but I have friends who are and do. I can’t stay in a place that would deny their existence and contribute to their misery.
When are you leaving?
The only reason I haven’t left already is that I maintain my workplace’s FB page. Hardly anyone sees what I post there. Perhaps it served some value a few years ago, but at this point it appears only a few people are aware of it.
I brought up my intent to leave FB to my superiors at work. I offered to assist the page’s transition to whoever they’d like to maintain it, though in terms of the people available I’m the logical one to do the work.
They don’t see a pressing need for the page’s continued existence. The page mainly exists to advertise a series of science talks. Our talks are already well-attended, sometimes to the limits of the available space. We don’t need to attract any more visitors.
The principle value of the page is it was a place for me to post the existence of new YouTube recordings of the science talks.
Here’s what my superiors suggested: Wait until the next of the science talks. We’ll ask the attendees if any of them rely on our FB page. I predict that no one will care. If my prediction is correct, my superiors will agree to my deleting the page when I delete my FB account.
The talk will happen in mid-February. I’ll have a staff meeting with my superiors on February 19, 2025. If all goes as I anticipate, I’ll delete the page and leave FB that night.
I could just delete my account and not tell my superiors. But that’s not responsible. Responsibility may become a hard thing to come by in the future.
What’s the point?
Some of my friends are staying with FB. They say they refused to be chased away, that they can preserve the narrative of freedom.
I respect their decision to stay, but I feel that this serves no purpose. The users of FB are not its customers. The customers are the advertisers. The users (and their personal data) are the product.
If an exodus from FB reduces its value, that sends a message in the only language the FB customers understand: money.
But even if I were the only one to leave, I feel that leaving is still the right thing to do.
For my friends who stay, I feel for them and fear for them. Their posts are going to be scrutinized by a consensus that’s likely to be less friendly to them. Posts are likely to come under review of AI-based scans that might impersonally and unilaterally censor them.
There may be no narrative to preserve.
Others of my friends point out that FB has always been this way. They’ve seen posts that have been deleted for arbitrary reasons. If reasons are given, those reasons have been based on right-wing ideology.
Rather than staying because it will just be more of the same, this tells me I should have left a long time ago. Mea culpa.
There are yet more friends who are staying because they use FB as a marketing tool. That’s up to them. Folks still have to eat. If FB will feed them, then so be it.
I only note that when I tried to use FB to market my jewelry, I spent more on ads than I ever made.
What will this mean for me?
This will be hard.
Since I began my medical isolation in 2020, my network of friends has gradually grown more distant. I can’t go to open gatherings like rituals, theaters, restaurants. I’ve been to parties and game nights, but only those where all present have tested negative for COVID on that day.
Most of the people with whom I maintain on-line contact do so through FB. When I leave, I’ll lose contact them with them, perhaps indefinitely.
This does not bode well for my mystery party in 2029.
Then I consider the people I love who don’t have my automatic privilege: those who are not straight, not cis-gender, and who otherwise would be hurt by the changes in FB.
If I stay, I become counted among those who would hurt them.
What kind of friend would I be to them then?
A lesser point is the ego-loss: FB doesn’t provide a way to download your old posts. There’s a “retrieve your data” feature buried in the options, but it only records superficial interactions that are mostly of interest to marketers.
I will lose a piece of my personal history.
That’s nothing compared to people being oppressed for no other reason than mindless hate. The loss of 16 years of posts is trivial in comparison.
Other social networks
I have accounts on BlueSky, Mastodon, and Discord. I haven’t developed the same community on those platforms yet.
It’s possible I never will. I can’t get the hang of dealing with multiple servers with multiple channels serving multiple conversations on Discord, for example.
What if the same thing happens on one of those other social networks? Then I’ll have to leave it too.
As I’ve noted before, the stand against tyranny is not supposed to be easy.
That’s what Passover is about. This witch will try to do Passover again in 2025.
I can’t recite the words of the Haggadah I’ve repeated for six decades and still yield to the Pharaohs of the modern world. The Jews in Egypt chose an Exodus. So must I.