I used to really enjoy Facebook. It took some arm-twisting to join back in 2007 because I didn’t really understand the reason for or value of social media. But I joined, and realized its value because I could share life updates — specifically our life with our new daughter — with distant family and friends, and I could get a glimpse into the lives of those same distant family and friends.
And Facebook allowed me to try to make people laugh. I’ve always tried to “produce” instead of “consume.” Granted I’ve done my fair share of mindless scrolling and consuming, but I always liked to contribute something to the internet, and I like to think that I’m kind of witty* and I firmly stand by the adage that laughter is the best medicine.
Nowadays Facebook puts people who I don’t know on my feed and less from people who I actually know. And then there are the endless “reels” (I’m putting “reels” in “quotes” here because in five years, whenever “reels” aren’t a thing any longer, we’ll all remember the time wasted watching 30 second videos of mindnumbingly stupid “content.”)
And then there’s the politics. This was an election year. Donald Trump was voted in as president again and while I’ve been pretty good about not letting politics eat into my overall well-being, the divisiveness thereof has taken its bite, and I can, fortunately, control that by simply changing the channel or just switching the damn thing off.
I’m not closing my Facebook account, and I’m not leaving or ignoring Facebook, I’m just taking it out of my pocket.
*some of the internet do not think that I’m very funny.