The Destruction of Meta

I'm Gen X and my first social media type experience was on Xanga years ago then Livejournal. Eventually I made my way to Myspace where I enjoyed the blog feature there. Over time, Facebook became the next big thing and everyone was there. I think I moved there around 2006 or 07 maybe, if I remember there wasn't much happening on it and in retrospect, I don't know why everyone was in such a hurry to leave myspace.

That said, for the last 12 years or so I've worked from home and Social Media has been pretty much my only social outlet, namely Facebook. Twitter was great, but for other reasons, mostly building my online business at the time. As Facebook got bigger, it also got progressively worse. Part of it was when Trump (I hate typing that name) ran for office the first time. That was when I first saw Facebook start to deterioate and its never been the same since. Now, with Zuckerberg a megabillionaire, he's totally given into not only demoloshing facebook into an ad filled right wing hellscape, but all other apps he comes across. I loved threads the first 6 months or so it existed. Then Zuckerberg did what he does, and now it sucks.

I don't have any heavy research or deep talking points to bring up here. This is why I'm now on Bluesky and my blog is hosted by Ghost. Both are decentralized, and I own all my own content and data on these places. Maybe all that is a myth, but it does give me a bit of peace of mind that some clown like Elon Musk or Zuck isn't profiting from my existence. I'm not the best at boycotts, I still use Amazon and other things, but I feel this is a small start, and any win is a win. Lots of my other friends have left Meta also. I shut down all my Meta accounts and don't plan on going back. I'm not going to tell you what to do, other than to say I didn't realize how awful Facebook was until I was off there for a couple days and how much less anxious and depressed I feel.  Something to think about.

Meta's hard lean in with AI and now wanting AI profiles and their silly Meta glasses are another thing that feels incredibly out of touch with the user base. People just want to connect with friends, share their art or their small businesses and have it be a place of escape and enjoyment. Instead we get rage bait, misinformation and AI profiles pushed on us. I kid you not, I saw an AI profile in my feed with a hippy guy profile pic, it said "My name is Jesus Christ, but you can call me JC."

I'm not even a Christian and I found this just bizarre on numerous levels. Imagine telling your troubles and sins to AI Jesus and he tells you to come and meet him to hurry things along. Who even knows. And I'm not dead set against AI, just how AI has been presented and unleased upon the public with little to no regulation. That looks like it won't be changing anytime soon.

Sadly, I know many people will just stay on Meta platforms. I'm not angry with them nor do I hold anything against anyone. No point in shaming people. For some its their only access to friends and family. Others just barely know how to use Facebook and don't want to learn another platform. There really isn't a solid Facebook alternative out there. Bluesky is great, but thats more of a Twitter/X replacement.

So here I am, back to blogging and I'm quite enjoying it. Only catch is learning some of the new blogging rules for SEO like post length and keywords, etc. Ten years or so ago a blog only needed to be around 300 words or so. Its fine, and I'm enjoying this. It will be more fun as other people start to discover this page and interact.

Also, as I get older and off social media, I tend to get out more. We've gone to some local Swiftie events. and gone for walks. I got new hiking boots to wear around and be more active with. People say for those of us chronically online to go "touch grass" so I'm trying. Some days its easier than others.

Also, today as I've been working on this blog, a few friends have messaged me to tell me they either deactivated their Facebook or are about to because of all the constant posting about Trump and politics since the inauguration yesterday. I get it, he's awful. But not sure we have to post about every stupid thing he says and does. We have four years, so we should pace ourselves for the big things.

I know this post deviates from my usual art post. But I guess this would fall under the "Ideas" portion of my blog description. When I launched this this morning, my goal was to make it into like an art portfolio. As the day has unfolded, I'm enjoying writing out my thoughts coupled with art and pictures. Its just nice being able to post my thoughts in a place without being attacked with the worst faith arguments possible. One thing you won't see on this blog is clickbait, sensational headlines or bullshit written by AI.

That would have been easier, yes, but it wouldn't have been my voice, and thats what you will get plenty of here. In the meantime, Meta continues to burn itself down and taking a big part of our world with it. I feel rather helpless to do anything about it, but hope in some way sounding the alarm will help at least a tiny bit. Its kind of like chopping down a large tree. One swing of the ax isn't going to do it, but if enough of us put in swings, eventually the whole thing will go down. In the meantime, be nice to each other, even when its not easy.