December 29, 2018

From Gerald R. Lucas
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I think I’m going to do it.

Yeah, I think I’m going to give up social media. Since we’ve found out this year what a sinister company Facebook really is, I'm souring on tech companies in general. Since money is the ultimate goal of this country and its companies, I just want to support such behavior as little as possible. Even Apple. I'm just tired of supporting the greed and materialism of this country, and I see social media giants, right now, as symptomatic of this dis-ease.

So, I think I'm gonna pull the plug, beginning with Facebook.[1][2] Then Twitter. Flickr. Instagram (that might hurt). Medium. 2019 might be the year where I close accounts. I've been thinking about this for a while. I used to have a more optimistic view of social media and its potential to usher in change, and maybe it still has that potential, but all I seem to see is its insipid side. Where I used to read novels before bed, now I scroll though the endless banality of Facebook. Just that fact alone should convince me.

What am I afraid of? Losing touch? If anyone is interested at all (and who is really), a Google search can find this site — especially if it's the only one I'm using.

And, yes, I know Google, Amazon, and Apple are maybe just as bad. It might be a bit harder to cut them out. I can begin smaller.

Note

  1. Quirk, Mary Beth; St. John, Allen (November 15, 2018). "How to Quit Facebook". Consumer Reports. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  2. Rheingold, Howard (October 1, 2018). "On quitting Facebook". Medium. Retrieved 2018-10-02.