Friday, October 5, 2012

Why I Left Facebook


Yesterday evening, I deactivated my Facebook page.

To complete deactivation you have to tell Facebook why you are telling them goodbye.

I selected one of the simple canned answers that the ever-helpful marketers at Facebook provide. It was something to the effect that I didn't find Facebook worthwhile.

So that was the short answer.

This is the long answer.
 
Facebook "Friends" turn out to be very much socialized into the basic American Dream myth and are trying against interpretation to live every cliché associated with it.

This explains why they are all so positive that your birthday marks the beginning of the best year you've ever had.

“This is the greatest summer of your life,” as the old L.A. rock station promotion used to tell us. But I thought we all knew that was just a marketing slogan.

Apparently not.

The happy persona Facebook encourages explains why "Friends" react to little bits of political cleverness as long as the post matches their canned concepts about politics, which is little more than received wisdom from the usual sources.

Most "friends" do not want to read about anything that challenges their POV, which they mostly get from network TV and online media.

The media mavens are clever enough not to challenge the general denial of reality that their followers cling to the way rednecks cling to guns and God. The media tells their audience that if they vote the right way and keep hoping things will change for the better then things will change for the better.

The better you hope the better things get.

And who wants to argue with circular logic?

Facebook "Friends" do not want to bother looking outside the leftwing versus rightwing debate paradigm they’ve been given as a place to park their brains. So they think inside that reserved parking space. There are two white lines, one on the left and one on the right and you stay within that space.

It is all safe and grounded.

And boring.

Or as Bob Dylan once wrote: "Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial. Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after awhile ..."
 
But then who actually listens to Dylan lyrics anymore?

Not even, as I discovered, the Bob Dylan fans on Facebook.


 

 


 

 

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