Gone from facebook - mostly

After planning it for the last years, I eventually left facebook - mostly.

I never was a really happy facebook user. I had many privacy concerns, the phone apps were just annoying, big, obtrusive, attention-demanding and facebook was just a huge time eater. I prepared to leave a few times but then there was always something that held me back. Practically everybody is on facebook and if you’re not on facebook, you lose all contacts, right? Well, kind of…

In the beginning of this year, some shocking events happened. Police went and killed 30 wolfdogs at a breeder that I know well. And facebook somewhat was very related to that. I also knew the person who ultimately was responsible for that massacre. I met her through facebook. The reaction of the wolfdog “community” on facebook was - to put it carefully - not to my liking. In fact the whole community wasn’t. Add to this some major break of trust and it was like waking up from a drug trip. Things suddenly became clear: facebook wasn’t the place where nice people are. A big, happy community. In reality, facebook is full of fake people, full of false people, full of negativity and pretense. Nobody is real, everybody is pretending to be something or someone else.

Sure, there are some nice people, some real friends, but real friendships work also without facebook. Even better, I’d say. Because, now if we don’t just silently follow each others’ posts and updates, we actually have something to talk about! Real communication!

I don’t have a private profile on facebook any more. I do still maintain pages for my wolfdog Ares and my filmmaking projects through a trustee but that’s it.

Facebook really is like a drug. It keeps your mind busy, keeps you happy in your bubble, so you don’t notice how it in reality eats you up by forcing you to put up an image, to share, just so you can keep up and compete with all the others. it’s a true circus of vanities. But not for me. Not any more.

I suddenly have much more time. Time for me, time for my family, time for my animals. Time for the really important things! And no more pressure to share anything or to like yet another meaningless cat meme post.