Why I left Facebook:
I recently decided to get off Facebook, and I have been asked by a few people why I made this decision. In addition to my regular Facebook, I had a Facebook page called “Danny’s Stump” that I used to publish my writing. I have moved a lot of this material to this site, https://danielmbryant.wordpress.com/ . I hope that the people who enjoyed reading my Stump posts will continue to read here.
One of the reasons I decided to get off Facebook is that I have decided I do not want to be a “Phone Zombie”, and I felt like I was becoming one, because I was checking Facebook too much. It seems like everywhere I go, I look around me, and the majority of people I see are starring at their phones, and pecking out something with their thumbs. It is really comical to watch. When I go to work, people are walking up and down the halls, starring at their phones. When I go the cafeteria to eat, people are sitting down, eating their pizza, sandwiches, or whatever with one hand, the trusty phone is in the other hand, and they are starring at it. On the elevator, starring at their phones. On the walking track, instead of taking in the sights and sounds of nature, starring at their phones. Even in church! The people who come into the sanctuary a few minutes early, instead of interacting with those around them, you guessed it, starring at their phones.
I have decided I want to live my life through my five senses, and engage with the world around me, not have it interpreted for me by a digital device. Not that I will not use my phone. It is a useful and practical device to have, but I do not want to be enslaved to it.
Another reason I have decided to get off Facebook is the fact that Facebook, along with a lot of other Social media platforms, such as Insta-gram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc., along with other internet services such as Google, are data mining, and profiling users, and selling that information for many different reasons. Google “HP Laptops” for example. The next thing you know, you will have advertisements for HP Laptops popping up in your FaceBook feed, and on the side of your Google page. (They have even started feeding the advertisements into Messenger.
They also sell the profile information for political purposes. If you “Like” posts that are more Conservative oriented, you will start getting Conservative Ads and posts in your feed. Likewise for Liberal. All this has become way to invasive for my liking.
There is also an element of brainwashing going on here if you think about it. Everyone, whether they realize and/or acknowledge it, has some bias. You interpret things a certain way. People tend to listen to and read whatever reinforces their own biases. This is just human nature. Not that that is a good thing at all, because it makes us all very narrow minded and intolerant of others. The problem with Social Media, is that, because of all the profiling that is done, the problem of bias is just perpetuated and worsened, because you are fed information that caters to your bias.
I personally prefer to draw my own conclusions about things, as opposed to being spoon fed opinions and slanted news feeds.
The last thing I want to mention is that Social Media tends to feed into our narcissism. I am no different than anyone else. I like to have my ego stroked. It is part of our human weakness that we seem to need the affirmation of others. That is normal to a certain extent, but constantly checking Social Media all the time to see whether someone “Liked” or commented on something you posted gets to be way too much of an obsessive behavior that I choose to avoid.
Being off of Social Media does not mean I choose to be anti-social. It does mean I would much prefer to sit down with you face to face and have a conversation over a nice cup of coffee or a hot meal. I like friends with skin and bones, not ones and zeros.
Danny's Stump 