Facebook Schmacebook

“It smells like a combination of urine, old lady perfume, and baked scrod.” I said as I pulled the ripcord on a would-be dining adventure. I won’t mention the name of the place out of respect but the overwhelming odor was simply so off-putting. We opted for Mexican, as we often do, because nothing beats tangy mixed with tequila any day. Life is simply too short to stay in a malodorous restaurant.

The week was mostly uneventful aside from my very unceremonious departure from Facebook, the most abusive relationship I have been in my whole life. There I learned to despise and other, to cast blame and shout without noise. It started so innocently with just wanting to connect with friends near and far. Then it changed, I don’t know when, and now I’m due some sort of financial fraction of a settlement that was just made. Apparently Facebook misused our data and we’re now all due about $22 as if that is going to pay for the years we have lost to its product. Yes, years. Maybe it was all the news of late that inspired me, maybe I was just done. But I Googled how to deactivate your Facebook account and just did it. I haven’t felt this good since I went on my Outward Bound trip in 1992 and didn’t eat junk for two weeks. Who knew a diet punctuated with Devil Dogs and Cheetos was unhealthy?

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“I feel like I was stuck in a loop of checking messages, email, then Facebook over and over again all day.” I told Thomas this weekend. “Somehow deactivating Facebook disrupted that loop.” I have no idea if I will stick to this, as a “writer” I rely on social media to spread my work. But then I thought “Why do I care if I spread my work?” The answer to that was unclear. I just no longer believe that my “work” has to be shared on a platform that, let’s face it, only started in some socially inept student’s dormroom to rank the hotness of chics he went to school with. Clearly he created a monster and hasn’t the maturity to deal with such a beast.

The world is scary right now. I cannot escape the news of the day in this household. “It’s good to be informed.” Mom always says, which I used to agree with until now. I am told, everyday, of the horrible things that happen in our communities and then on the world stage as well. I am aware, painfully, of what is happening. I am sensitive, incredibly sensitive. I feel each story like it is my own, I care. So when I found myself on Facebook everyday, consuming the rage bait that they had deliberately placed into my feed, I got angry at Mark Zuckerberg. What I have seen over the years on Facebook has been tantamount to poison in our society and it's not even a physical product we can touch and feel. So, while I don’t have an suggestions as to how anything can improve from here, I can say that deactivating Facebook is working for me. I’m still on Instagram though. Because, I’m no fool.

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