Two days ago, I read Lauren Field's troubling article, "Should we fear the future of Facebook?", in the In Depth section of the Deseret News. Even though its subject is worrisome, I feel very strongly that everyone should read it and share it with their peeps!
After I finished the article, my mind instantly went to the family of my birth (and their spouses)—more than half of them are still active on Facebook. I composed an email to my peeps that included the article listed above and sent it right off.
I won't bore you with my entire email, but this is the first sentence I sent to my beloved Fam, "I just read this article about Fakebook and I'm convinced yet again that Facebook is NOT good for any of us!" I strongly encouraged my family members to read the article and delete their Facebook accounts!
Thus, I was super happy (and genuinely surprised!) to receive an email yesterday morning from my wonderful sister-in-law. She's been wanting delete her Facebook account for a while now, but kept hanging onto it for little reasons. Happily, she said the article I shared is what convinced her to finally "dump Facebook"! Yay yay happy day! Now I just need to get the rest of my extended family to break up with Facebook, too! Ha ha.
Don't worry, I'm not too pesky about trying to get them off of Facebook. I fully understand that everyone gets to choose how they live their lives. That said, I wonder if I might persuade some of you in the world wide web to dump Facebook, too? 😇
What really bothers me about Facebook's status these days (ha!) is that the company and its influence has grown much bigger, I think, than anyone ever planned on. I believe it's so big, in fact, that there are problem accounts/groups on Facebook that aren't being monitored properly. I don't think Facebook has the employee power or resources to handle the vastness that it's helped create in our www—not to mention the fallout that happens to its users in real life! And the fake news that engulfed Facebook users during the United States Presidential Election is downright scary!
Yes, I worry about a company that has that much access to its customers' personal lives. I totally worry about the tornado vacuums and virtual reality bubbles that Facebook has created in our society. That sounds extreme, but I believe Facebook's "social experiment" is far from over!
In fact, whenever I think of Mark Zuckerberg, my mind instantly goes to the cartoon, "Pinky and the Brain"—and Mr. Zuckerberg is Brain, just waiting to take over the world! Ha ha. For a fun visual, see this YouTube video: Pinky and the Brain intro.
Now I wouldn't necessarily call Mark Zuckerberg a literal genius, but he has accomplished what no one else could do—and on such a grand scale. So I give him props for that. But his great accomplishment certainly doesn't make me want to sign away my privacy and free time to him, that's for darn sure!
I realized that it's been two years to the day since I quit Facebook! (And I so did not plan my post this way! 😁) As I look back over those two years, I'm amazed at how ecstatic I truly am—and continually feel(!)—that I dumped Facebook! Leaving Facebook behind really is one of the best social media decisions I've ever made! 😀
Of course I've found other ways to spend my social media time since leaving Facebook, but overall, I have a lot more free time! My brain is absolutely less cluttered—which means I have more time for researching other things I'm interested in or passionate about. My soul is so much less annoyed! I can honestly say that I'm a better person for having shunned Facebook! Yay me! 😄
If you're not yet tired of this subject, feel free to read more of my thoughts about Facebook and why I ended up leaving it—my previous posts are in chronological order:
I could go on and on about the dangers I see in Facebook (like I did to Greg yesterday morning!), but I'll refrain. Suffice it to say, I'm so happy I use Instagram and my blog to keep up with my friends and family! As I've said many times before, I wish everyone would write a blog! And I still deeply feel that way!
Yesterday, I watched an interesting TED Talk about blogging—clear back from 2006! While our social media society has drastically changed since then, the speaker's point—that everyone should be blogging about their lives—is as important today as it was 11 years ago! I totally agree with Mena Trott! Here's her talk if you're interested: "Meet the founder of the blog revolution."
Then, last night after dinner, I started watching the new documentary, "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise" via our Roku's PBS channel. I was only about 15 minutes into it when I felt strongly that I needed to finish this creating this post instead.
But before I started writing again, I looked at the list of literary works Ms. Angelou created over her lifetime. I was impressed—okay, blown away!—to see all of her accomplishments! Yet in that very same moment, I felt the fire within me roar even stronger that everyone needs to be writing (i.e., blogging! 😍) about their lives as much as possible! Obviously, we shouldn't blog to the point of becoming unbalanced in our lives—we need moderation in all things, but each and every single one of us should absolutely be writing about our lives on a consistent basis.
In the end, I'll let my favorite hashtag of the day have some time in the Enthusiastic Fantastic spotlight. 😊 Yes, I'm all about the #neverfacebook movement! I thought I created that awesome hashtag, but according to Twitter, it's already been used to complain about Facebook many times! Ha ha. I hope you'll join me in my #neverfacebook "mission" and spread the word!
P.S. I had a lot of fun creating this typographic design!
*Update: 08/03/17:
To further support my ideas in this post, please watch this fascinating TED Talk, "The manipulative tricks tech companies use to capture your attention," by Tristan Harris. It will blow your mind! And then it will make you decide to take back your life and own your brain's attention! We all must fight being "controlled" by big tech companies!! #notgonnadoit! 😂
*Update: 09/28/17:
With all that's going on with Facebook in the news these days, here's another article that raises the alarm bells about Facebook. Fakebook is not good for our world!
"Facebook’s Frankenstein Moment,"by Kevin Roose of the New York Times.
*Update: 12/16/17:
Here are three more important, must-read articles that futher support my #neverfacebook! stance! 😊
"The End of the Social Era Can't Come Soon Enough"
It seems increasingly likely that our society will one day view our infatuation with Twitter, Facebook, and the like as a passing, often destructive fad.By Nick Bilton
"Sean Parker on Facebook: 'God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains'"
Parker says he’s become a 'conscientious objector' on social mediaBy Thuy Ong
"Social networking sites may be controlling your mind – here’s how to take charge"
By Simon McCarthy-Jones
While I agree that Facebook can be destructive for many reasons, I've personally made the decision not to outright delete my account. I hardly ever check notifications and never read through my feed, but I want there to be a place where people need to get in touch with me if they need to. When I returned home from my mission, Facebook was how I was able to get in touch with many people for whom I had no other contact info, and others have done the same for me. It's been sweet to reconnect with mission friends across the world I never would have talked to again without the ability to look them up on Facebook. Facebook was created primarily to stay in touch with people, and for me, it still fulfills that purpose. Maybe deleting their account entirely is the best way for some people to break their social media addiction, but I'm grateful to at least have a landing page where long-lost friends can find me.
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