Done with Facebook

OK, let me clarify. I still have a Facebook page, and I will still, out of necessity keep my Facebook page because I use it for work and I have a couple of out-of-state (and one out-of-country) friends I only communicate with through Facebook messenger.

But I am otherwise done with the social media site. No, there wasn’t any one incident that sent me over the edge.

I’ve just come to the realization that the fun and the joy I used to get from Facebook isn’t there anymore. Years ago, I took great delight in reconnecting with friends and family over Facebook and catching up with them. I also played a couple of those weird farming games where you had to log onto Facebook every few hours to “harvest your beans” or whatever. Facebook was fun.

Now, it’s just stupid.

Whatever positive things Facebook might have brought into my life, it’s not worth scrolling through the targeted advertising, the bickering, the so-called experts sharing their skewed take on reality, and so I’m done.

I didn’t even realize it until Sunday afternoon, which was my 29th anniversary. I was getting ready to post something about my anniversary, to make it Facebook official, as they say. I pulled up the app and the first thing on my feed was some angry parent lodging ridiculous complaints about the local schools. The next thing was some baloney about COVID-19 theories that someone seemed to have pulled out of the ether, and then something about the recent halftime show from the Super Bowl. It was at that

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I lost all interest in making my anniversary post. I realized that I had already told my lovely wife “Happy Anniversary,” and really, who else did I need to tell.

In fact, who else would even care?

The next day, scattered among all the offended and the enlightened, there were a bunch of Valentines’ Day posts. I again considered doing one of my own, but again, I just couldn’t get interested in it. I definitely still love my wife as much as the more-than-a-decade worth of posts from Valentine’s Days past said I did in my Facebook Memories, but again, why would I want to put that in with the trash on my Facebook feed.

I still didn’t quite realize that I was giving up on Facebook until two days later when my daughter passed the written test to get her long-awaited Driver’s Permit. I even took a picture and a shor video of her driving with the idea that I would share them with the world.

Instead, I shared them with my family group chat and that was it. Facebook Land didn’t need to know about her driver’s test, did they?

Facebook was busy telling me how Trump really won the 2020 election (still) and that Joe Rogan is the voice of the reason in this crazy world.

Then, finally, on Thursday, it was my middle child’s 24th birthday. You can scroll back and find posts all the way back to 2009 where I wish him a Happy Birthday and post a photo.

But, you know what? He doesn’t even check his Facebook, and judging from the looks of it, he hasn’t since around 2013.

So that’s when I said, “You know what? I’m done.” I’m sure no one will miss me. I rarely post and it’s never anything of consequence.

And I have had a rule for years about never commenting on anything because there are a lot of dumb people out there with a lot of dumb opinions and I don’t want to a) argue with them or b) be one of them. I’m done.

If you need me, you can still call or text. I check my email several times a day, but no more Facebook.

Having said that… call me when it goes back to being funny pictures of cats.