A Month Off Facebook

I’ve been trying not to say the name of the new President of the USA.  Partly because it makes me feel physically sick to consider such an unduly ugly human, but mostly because if no one looks at him, he will die.  (This is the reason he ran for President, to become the one person in the world who cannot be ignored.)

I decided not to use, or even look at, Facebook, for a month.  I didn’t want to tell anyone, or announce it on Facebook, so I didn’t.
As per the above, I thought it would combine protecting my own mental health with trying to stop a bully.
(Also, considering the amount of videos where someone claims to have “destroyed” the President in a debate or interview or comedy monologue, it’s amazing he’s still alive, let alone in a position of high office.  The same goes for almost any other famous person who has ever expressed an opinion of any kind.  The only thing that has been destroyed here is the word destroyed, which is “destroyed” forever.)

I have always had to take periodic breaks from consuming news media; I’m interested, and have kept an eye on the news media all my life, always trying to read critically.  As Facebook (and other similar sites) have replaced TV and print News as the most popular sources of information, the idea of critical reading has become more of a conversation – instead of interrogating a source, in a critical sense, we now conduct a conversation which so often and so quickly descends from a pub chat between ill-informed people to endless bickering and outright abuse, it’s easy to believe that’s the whole point of it.

Also, because “content” – mostly search results – is now aimed at such a specific audience, curated to a maddening degree.  But is it though?  Aren’t there still as many trolls as there are echo chambers?  Are there people left who don’t need to take a selfie every time they see someone they know?  YES – but there’s then nothing to post on Facebook, so the rest of us don’t notice as much as the people who do post every meal on Instagram, or wherever.  Facebook has gone the way of television, and every other mass communication technology: the possibilities for creativity are almost endless, but it is mostly used for an unhealthy mix of bile, advertising, porn and mediocrity – and yet, many of us feel we just can’t do without it.  I would like to find out if I’m one of those.

Mostly though, it’s a combination of boredom (I rarely enjoy looking at Facebook), and a worry that I’m doing some sort of damage to myself and/or limiting, rather than enhancing, my life in The Real World.  So, the same reasons I stopped smoking weed.  Actually, it’s more like stopping drinking for a while: I’ve always thought I could take it or leave it, so I’m trying it out; practising abstinence with a view to achieving moderation.  Which is difficult – moderation is, in many ways, harder than abstinence.  It’s not gonna kill me to eat chips for tea on a Friday, but if I eat chips and nothing else, every day, eventually, it will get me.  We are what we eat.

The thing about Facebook is, it’s a handy way of keeping in touch with people, isn’t it?  But since most of my Facebook friends are, in fact, people I don’t really know In Real Life, what does it mean for me?  So, this is gonna be a piece of piss, surely.

I’m doing this, like I do everything else, from a position of privilege.  The Worst President Ever™ is not threatening me with anything in particular, even if he is determined to make the world more hilariously frightening and hateful.  For immigrants in the US and UK right now, the news must be even more of a horror show than always.  I can afford to drop out of this for a while, so I’m taking the chance.

Having made this decision, I thought that I’d then tell you about it.  Here’s what happened.

In the first week of my self-imposed exile, I got a call from paramedic, as someone close to me was in some kind of trouble.  I was not at hand myself, so The Paramedic asked if I could find some numbers, and/or call anyone who was nearby.  She suggested using Facebook to try and get hold of people to help.  I saw a couple of messages when I logged in but didn’t read them.  I sent a couple, reaching out for help.  I suppose that was a kind of cheating, but no jury would convict me.  As the urgency of the situation faded, I was mildly annoyed that I’d had to use it.  I hadn’t even thought of it before the Paramedic suggested it.  It wasn’t the most annoying thing about the whole event, to be fair.  As I would have on Facebook, I will here point out that no one was hurt, the situation was not that bad and resolved itself quickly, although not without some undue worry.

At one point in the second week, I looked at someone else’s Facebook page for information on infrared heaters.  Also, in the second week, I was ill for about five days.  I got better.

In the third week, I finally stooped to getting my news from “mainstream” sources.  In some cases, I even read a straight news report of a story before I heard any jocular reference to it from someone I barely know.  It was strange, and reminded me of a bygone era.

I continued to publish this blog every week – and, in general, I got on with my life (whatever that means).  I thought about some things I had done that had nothing to do with Facebook.

Things I Read While Not Looking at Facebook: Native Son, Richard Wright; Another Country, James Baldwin, The Guardian, The Independent, various football websites.

Things I Watched That I Didn’t Post About On Facebook: The Big Short; Rome, Open City; Battle Royale; Superbowl LI; The History Of Jazz; Yasiin Bey (live); a KRS ONE interview; a debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley.

Things I Listened To That Nobody Told Me About On Facebook: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel; Dillatronic, J Dilla; We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service, A Tribe Called Quest; Blackstar, David Bowie; The Flying Club Cup, Beirut; Our Endless Numbered Days, Iron & Wine; The Avalanche, Sufjan Stevens; The Mountain Will Fall, DJ Shadow; Pieces Of A Man, Gil Scott-Heron; Black Shuck Rings Mordor, Men Diamler; Man With A Movie Camera, The Cinematic Orchestra; WTF Podcast, Marc Maron; Radio 4.

On the first two and last three days of the month, I got a bit paranoid that I had missed a message about a really exciting opportunity.  I didn’t.  I missed a couple of messages from friends, and responded with an apology for not having responded soon, explaining why.  I did miss some things.  Here is a list of things I missed.

Things I Missed:

Links to Daily Mash articles

Phil’s jokes

Dan’s jokes

A couple of messages I would/should have replied to promptly (including two from people I contacted, in the second week, at the Paramedic’s request)

 

But, as alluded to above, there were plenty of things I didn’t miss.  Here are some of the things I didn’t miss.

Things I Didn’t Miss

Political rants (these are better in The Real World…)

Cries for help

Video links with the words “destroys”, “eviscerates”, “owns”, “pwns”, “reacts” and “…and the internet went crazy”

Links to links that discuss video links

 

I had a month off Facebook, and it was alright.  Mind you, I don’t really use it that much, to be fair.  I didn’t have a lot of epiphanies about it, to be honest.  But I did reach some conclusions.  Here are some of my conclusions

Conclusions

Facebook isn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t use it.

Facebook has a lot of negatives, but it still has some positives;

No one noticed I wasn’t there;

It’s like everything else: whatever we make it.