Most of the content of this post is a letter that my husband posted to his Facebook account shortly before completely deleting it. When I asked him if it was OK for me to share it here, he enthusiastically agreed. For the most part, the following is exactly as he wrote it.
To whom it may concern:
In light of the revelation that Social Media companies design their platforms to include algorithm to keep us engaged as long as possible and to track everything we do on the platform. They record everything we “like”, comment, post, and share and then sell the information they collect to “the highest bidder”. They sell our (deeply personal) to data aggregators, advertisers, lawyers, private investigators, government agencies, and the like. Anything we say can and will be used against us. Let us keep in mind that Social Media companies are publicly-traded corporations that are beholden to their shareholders to maximize their profits.
If you are not paying for the product you ARE the product.
In light of the political vitriol that has torn families, friendships, and marriages apart, exemplified by the insurrection on the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, it has become painfully clear to me that we can no longer share our true feelings with one another without being accused of “disrespecting” or otherwise “offending” one another. This is a most tragic state of affairs and I am sorry to say that the “Conspiracy Theories” spread on Social Media only serve to make matters worse.
Whatever happened to the America that I have come to know? We are Americans! We’re better than this!
In light of the observation that many of our “friends” on Facebook are people we may not have seen since high school or college, if we have ever met them at all, is far preferable to have a small circle of close friends in the real world than it is to have legions of virtual friends in the online world.
In light of the observation that Social Media use take us a lot of time (and money) that would be better spent on living our lives in the real world.
Why is it that some people spend real money on virtual things (e.g. Candy Crush, Farmville, Cityville, Margaritaville)?
In light of the abovementioned observations, I have come to the painful realization that Social Media will always get more out of us than we will get out of it. After months of soul-searching, and consultations with my wife, my pastor, my therapist, and my attorney, the time has come for me to permanent delete all of my Social Media accounts with the exception of LinkedIn. This decision is not one to be taken lightly. However, I value my privacy and peace mof mind far more than I value the opinions and judgements of those who hardly know me at all. Let us meet in person (at least, once this this COVID-19 nightmare is over).
Take care and Godspeed,
Bill
I do have some thoughts of my own that I would like to share, but I’ll leave those to a future post.
Heather 2.0 