A New Normal

Two days ago, the Facebook platform put me on a 24-hour restriction for the offence of sharing a URL from a manufacturer's website on my "page" and I tagged my lifelong friend and his son in it with "hey doood, here's the rifle we were talking about" intent. I couldn't tell him what happened. I was effectively muzzled from speaking to my friend. I am not mentioning what it is in this piece to specifically avoid that now. I want folks to be able to see this. So, be forewarned - I put this through a filter to ensure I don't get pulled out of your feed by the robots. 

I got angry - really angry, at first. I wanted to get back at those bastard algorithms (being realistic about it)  and their masters for fucking with me like that. It's their platform, yes. But what makes it valuable to them? 

Me, that's what. Facebook ain't shit without users. 

Since I couldn't tell anyone what I was contemplating anyway, I decided to give it a go. I found the path to "disable account" and did it. 

I've been on that platform for 11 years. But, something happened in the past few months that have made me realize that we're all using it incorrectly. I don't know what the correct way is to use a social media platform, but Facebook, in particular is not it. I ruminated a bit about what it is that makes it an awful marketplace for ideas and discussion (which it is). 

Back when I found that platform, it did something useful and valuable to me - it let me reconnect with all of the people I had met from my past who I have moved away from. The platform let me catch up, reminisce and actually share things with my far-flung friends and family. That actually brought value to my life.  

It stopped doing that 2 days ago. What exactly is the platform bringing me for my time and stress. 

But - we also used it for too much. It became "media" and an unfiltered stream of consciousness. Our attention spans declined and ability to see nuance in life declined with it. 

I'm looking back at the past few months and wondering how many contacts have just quietly severed connections and not even made any hay of it. If I hurt you, I'm sorry. Really sorry. It sounds cliched, but only after a few days totally unplugged from the distraction matrix do things start to crystalize. 

Writing like this makes me think about what I'm writing. It's probably better for the world that if I am going to spout my opinions (open onions?  :) ) I should probably be forced to use the proper, liberty-loving form of of The Queen's English, and present my points in a format which I wouldn't be ashamed of being presented to professional colleagues. 

At the time I write this, I fully intend to post my article links back on Facebook (and re-activate my account to do so). But - I will be using it mostly as (a) I originally did, to keep up with my far-flung friends and contacts and (b) to promote this medium. I'm not against discussion - I'd just rather do it in a place that actually had a richer capability for discussion. Famous last words, right? 

I hope you've made it this far, and I hope you come back. 

And you know what ? - if it makes for dry, uninteresting reading, so be it. My message won't go far - that's how Darwinism works, and I support this fully.