I created a Facebook profile years ago and was delighted when I was able to reconnect with old friends. It wasn't about reliving the past, these were people that I cared about, but had lost contact with through the many moves I made beyond my high school years. I was happy to see the photos of their families and get a peek into their lives as adults and parents.
For years I have turned to Facebook as a way to kill time, keep up with friends, and at times, be my social outlet. It's not that I am anti-social, it's just that I run my own business where I am, basically, the only full-time employee. I am also a busy mom whose schedule gets crazy at 3:00 pm every day when I pick up the kids. From school's out to bedtime, the hours evaporate. My local social circle consists of other busy moms who have the same evaporating schedule, and can barely eek out a dinner and movie night with friends every three months. It's life, and it is what it is. Facebook allowed me to "socialize" in the after hours while wearing pajamas and slippers. How great is that!
As I continued to have a presence on Facebook, I expanded from following friends to following news sources, special interest groups, humor pages, DIY sites, and other things I found interesting. Without even being aware, I could spend hours on Facebook. I was on there regularly, and for the most part, just saw it as a harmless hobby that I enjoyed.
All of this changed with the 2016 election. I noticed that the Comments sections started bringing out the worst in people. Although I'm a skeptic, I am also someone who has dedicated her life to nonprofit work believing that people are basically good. Even being grounded in reality, I was taken aback that my country seemed to be becoming a haven for the most disgusting racism, was full of willful ignorance, and was occupied by people who were seething with hatred towards their fellow countrymen.
It has now come out that in St. Petersburg, Russia exists a building where hundreds of people are employed where the sole job is to be the worst face of America. It was starting to make sense. Last week, I posted a comment on one of the news sites I follow, and of the 28 responses, barely a dozen were from real people. Most were extremely vile, and when I clicked on the profile, the "person" had one, maybe two profile pictures, which were not of themselves, but a meme or an image anyone can find on the internet. They give a location that is usually in the Midwest, the South or Texas, and the account is only one or two years old. It's very obviously a fake.
With the anti-Semitic profiles, I have reported over a dozen to Facebook, and never once have they suspended the account claiming that the user does not violate their standards. How can a site that has memes of Holocaust victims with the words "Next time, let's finish the job." not violate Facebook standards? All Facebook ever gives me is the notice that the profile is okay with them, along with instructions about how to block that profile. I guess Facebook figures that if I can't see it, then all will be okay, which is a shame considering their Jewish leadership.
Between the barrage of vile responses to comments, the revelation about Russia using Facebook to tear America apart, and Facebook's piss poor response, I decided that many places on Facebook have become toxic. I began unfollowing everything from news sites to special interest pages, and even the humor and DIY sites. I'm now back to the original reason I got on Facebook; to keep in touch with friends.
If I need news, I will log on to my subscription with the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and yes, I pay for these news sources, because they have actual newsrooms, trained journalists, and editors, which most of the Facebook "news sites" do not have. During the investigation into the troll farm in St. Petersburg, they also discovered that Russia was creating many "news sites", both liberal and conservative and putting them out there as credible. I'm done with that. If I want to be active in causes that I believe in, I go to that group's website and join their email list, and if I need a recipe, want to see something humorous, or look at a DIY project, I will find it all in a Google search.
When innovators and manufacturers create a product that they want to sell to the public, there are regulations in place to make sure that the public is kept safe. Although everyone loves the idea of a barrier-free internet, I don't like the irresponsibility on the part of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media groups that have allowed their product to be used to prey on the public at large. Where is the protection for the users?
It might be a pipe dream, but I hope people start realizing they have been duped, and begin cutting social media back to its original purpose: to stay connected with people you actually know in person. We made social media sites our one stop shop, and now we are paying the price, but one by one, we can unfollow, stop commenting, recognize that a benign site may have a sinister foreign motive, and take our mental health back. Years ago when my daughter first created an Instagram account, there were classmates who created posts that were meant to be very bragging and exclusionary. She told me that looking at those posts made her feel bad, so I told her to just "unfriend" them. She is not obligated to look at or follow anything that makes her feel bad, and with that advice, she unfollowed and instantly felt better. Now, years later, I am finally taking my own advice.
