Not that anyone will give a toss, but in the last year or so I’ve used Facebook less and less. Occasionally, I will post something, usually though not always, light-hearted but mostly I used it to publicise this blog in order to hopefully lift the visitor numbers into higher double figures. This week, I made the mistake of writing about Bristol City’s failure to lose narrowly to Sheffield United in the Championship play offs and it set off the usual schadenfreude and bitterness that accompanies the former rivalry in Bristol’s football world. I get that Bristol Rovers fans probably need something to celebrate with their own club so far up Shit Creek but frankly this has been such a terrible year for my family and me, I just need hope, not hate. No more Bristol football Facebook posts from me and I’ve taken this one down.
And not much more Facebook, either. While I am in the right demographic for its services (old), I no longer need them. The things I used to share, or some of them, I am able to do on here, only with greater depth and freedom. And, snowflake that I am, I closed down the ‘comment’ option over ten years ago. (Actually, some of the anonymous abuse was vile and like Facebook today, I just don’t need it in my life.)
I had thought of using Facebook as an alternative option to real life. Instead of commenting on the issues of the day, I could post just trivia, including semi-humorous memes for a bit of attention or for some LOLs. The real world has a tendency to be a pretty unpleasant place at times. What better, then, to use Facebook to project a world of non-stop happiness, in effect to switch part of my brain off. To be fair, I suspect the latter started many years ago and the former is a state that would be utterly misleading. I am far too depressed to appear happy all the time, something that would in effect see me lying to Facebook friends. I’m trying to be a better and more honest person, every day and in every way.
Friends have switched off from Facebook for good with no ill effects. They’ve just gone back to the world they inhabited before Facebook came along, doing novel things like meeting up with friends and talking to them. I am going to do with Facebook what I do with what I have done with twitter/X. I am not getting rid of it, but I am going all minimalist.
twitter/X was easy to leave after Nazi saluting billionaire Elon Musk bought it as a propaganda tool. I loved twitter, it being my favourite social media place to be. No more. Any friend of Donald Trump, another fascist, is no friend of mine. I have not closed my account because I don’t want some shitty right-wing toe rag using my carefully cultivated Eclectic Blue handle but to use twitter/X is to encourage Musk, in a small way, to help enable his far right politics. Facebook is a little bit different and although I am more than a little concerned by his brown-nosing of Trump, by way of donating a million dollars to him and being a guest at his inauguration, I am very concerned at his decision to end truth-checking. But mostly, I am bored with it.
In future, I’ll keep my involvement to a minimum. I might update my profile photos from time to time, I might wish someone a happy birthday, although I prefer to do so more personally, even it’s only via messenger, and to publicise this blog. I’ll probably respond to happy and sad posts, too, because I know many folk look to Facebook as their first port of call to announce pretty well anything. Hell, I wouldn’t rule out doing that myself for something Big, like my death or something equally cheery.
All this is a logical step for me. I loathe selfies, especially my own and I am utterly baffled by the need to photo dumps, even though in a previous life I was equally guilty of dumping as much as the next woman and man.
Being one of life’s Mr Inconsistents probably means I’ll do the exact opposite and start sharing even more dreary memes, photo dumps and even bitter and twisted posts about football. I hope not, though. I am more aware than ever about my mortality and maybe social media is not the best place to spend what time I have left.
With social media, and with many other things, less is more.
