Goodbye Social Media.... Again

I ended up leaving Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram today. This time it wasn't out of depression, or me wanting to distance myself from a specific person. It's the world. 

More specifically it's just unhappiness with social media in general. I haven't logged into Facebook and been happy for years. Every time I logon there's just an eye sore of political screaming. I love having conversations and debates with people I disagree with on religion and politics, but unfortunately we've digressed to a point where conversations are no longer being had. Now, disagreements are shouted in multiple posts of name calling. 

When has the world become this crazy? It's easy to blame Trump because, come on, the man (and the media surrounding him) is a fucking train wreck. But no, I genuinely believe the answer is somehow far more sinister than Trump. The answer is Facebook. 

It's no secret that Facebook uses psychological tactics in their design and engagements with users to keep people addicted and coming back for more. I feel like somehow that design has backfired and went from an innocuous data-farming website for users, to a breeding ground of ugliness. 

How can it be that there is a platform based on social interactions, but no conversations? If I tell you that I disagree and state my point of view, I'm blocked. If I avoid the screaming echo chambers I'm implicitly active in societal destructions. And if I post about something that's not on the menu of hot political discord no one cares. And why? Because the circlejerk is fucking real and you're either in, or you're out.

I tried keeping quiet about current politics. I have plenty of friends on both sides of the spectrum. No, it wasn't because I didn't want the conversations. I actually do. I love debating my views with people because I truly do love understanding "the other side" of the conversations. I stayed quiet because it's pointless to engage.

Maybe our attention span is too short to actually read articles. It seems like everyone regurgitates article headlines as fact. Every post is a clickbait, only the clicks that you're being baited into are either a Like or a block. 

I recognize wholly that I do not know everything. So when I do engage I do so with respect and poise. I have a friend on Playstation that tried telling me that being gay is a choice. I'm not unfriending him because of this belief. Hell, I believe the best way to learn something is exposure, so I make my points with him and we keep playing. Of course it fills me with rage, as being someone who is gay I take that point of view very personally, but I'm not going to take it out on him. He just doesn't know better. He's not gay and therefore he can't personally understand and identify with the struggles of coming out. That respect I give him despite his point of view is reciprocated. I'm sure he knows how I feel about that idea, but we still played together. Afterall at the end of the day I'm not there for your political beliefs. I logon to PSN to play games. Whether you're ludicrously left or right doesn't fucking matter as long as you get my rez when I go down. 

The unhappiness on social media as a whole has become too much to bear. I went from being excited to see so many people suddenly into politics, to being incredibly disappointed when I realized that no one was into politics, only the tribalism that comes with it. 

I consider myself liberal, I consider myself a democrat, but I am not going to be bound by those titles. There are plenty topics I lean a little to the right on. I don't know, maybe it's not relevant. It just seems that my friends on Facebook were more worried about the tribalism than what's right...and I mean on both sides. Unfortunately stupidity is very much bipartisan. 

So yes, I deleted Facebook. The only way to beat this game is to stop playing. I deleted Twitter as well because I'm just tired of seeing the echo chambers I've created for myself. And I've deleted Instagram. Mostly because I really don't need it. Honestly Instagram has been mostly peaceful despite world politics. 

Hopefully I stick with it. I feel like going back on Facebook at this time would be me willingly signing up for disappointment. I'm a simple guy, and I want my life to be that: simple. Simplicity is not willfully engaging in complex issues, one-way conversations with people, and marketing. Simple is writing in a blog. A one-way conversation with myself.