Today I deleted my Meta accounts, for the reasons everyone has mentioned (the last straws for me were Zuckerberg’s signing me up without my consent (or interest) to President Trump’s accounts and his deleting of several accounts for abortion pill providers, but I was headed here already after he removed any semblance of a hate speech firewall following the election).
The truism is that nobody uses Facebook or Instagram or Messenger anymore anyway, but in my advanced age group, at least, these aging platforms still seem to be avenues for communication. The neighborhood pages help organize our high school reunions, apprise me of our dog Buddy when he’s run through the fence, and keep me up to date on my book club, for instance; I’ve bought and sold stuff on the Facebook Marketplace, and the Today’s Birthdays feature is heartening (fun both to give and receive virtual balloon showers with old pals).
My separate Facebook page for writing/reading has probably helped me sell books and has notified me of meetups, readings and competitions of interest. Losing the advertising side of Meta world will hurt (not least because potential agents and publishers always want to know how many virtual friends and followers you have). I’ll miss all of this, but still….
I did announce my departure and shared email info with friends and followers, in case they care to get in touch that way, and then followed the directions to delete (here’s the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674/, in case you, too, may be interested).
Months ago, after Musk took over Twitter, I deleted that account, and found a happy substitute in Bluesky, where I maintain a personal address (@logentry.bsky.social) and one for the slapdash political cartoons I’m scribbling in an effort to cope with the second coming of the orange one (@benttrumpeter.bsky.social). Here, by the way, is an example:

My hope is to post one sketch a day. Certainly, there will be no lack of material.
Beyond that, I’ll try to keep up with neighborhood activities on the NextDoor account I set up years ago, buy and sell stuff on Craigslist, and hope to find a Facebook substitute without all the ads and political garbage. I’ll continue to blog here, too. And maybe I’ll even reach out to people more directly, seek actual face time with friends, get off-screen and out of the house more. Imagine, the end of doom-scrolling! Whoot!
Are you making changes to your social media diet? I’d love to hear about it. Please add a comment, if you will.
Meanwhile, bye bye Meta. You’ve meant a lot to me over the years, but the time has come. Now just have to figure out how to delete the links on this website!
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