Stages of UnFacebooking
Day 2 blogging from smartphone (Hideous typos ahead. Typos left in place to show how much of the world sees the interinternet, through their tiny phone screen sans laptop.)
Stage 1 the reluctant Facebook join.
I'll just see what it looks like inside.
Stage 2 caught in the sheepdogging social storm. I'll keep my friend count to two digits. Oh my IRL friend can see that I've FB friended her friend, I'll just add one more.
Stage I've lost count: in my effort to be polite and quit Facebook my friend count ballooned to .
Deactivate and reactivate. Repeat. 2010 to 2013.
Big hurdle: unfriend family members. Since you see them often. Brace for blowback or backlash.
Big hurdle 2: unfriend the friends you see IRL at least annually. Explain that you still love them you're just pulling out of this particular platform. Explain angrily because they don't hear or believe you and continue using messenger as conduit. Block friend to force them off messenger and into email text or another conduit. Take the risk of never hearing from friend on another conduit. Show up at friends house with wine to show them physically, you are still friends, see, and there are communication conduits outside from that platform.
Stage getting somewhere. 12 months go by. Grow a little concerned friend from stage current minus 1 had died but you won't know because you're not on platform. Consider rejoining just to check if friend or anyone died. Successfully resist rejoining urge.
Stage unfollow an masse. Unfriending takes about two months per friend. Unfriended friends keep showing up in feed via comments on FB friends posts. Take several wrong turns digging up friends list on nested administration menu. Unfollow batches of friends with a deep breath. A few FB remains because FOMO.
13 months go by.
Stage purge the well meaning extroverts the ones who think sharing positive news like their recent vacation photos is considerate. Unfriend the unfollowed. Several sets of 10 friends unfriended. Inhale. Good job.
Several more stages like following newsmakers and the few friends whose posts only sometimes annoy. Notice this is a performance. Get caught in a performance web of wishiwishing happy birthday to people.
2018 notice he time you spend feed mg the algorithm in hopes your posts appear high in people's feeds is supplanting engagement on getting gun magazines out of the children's section of th e grocery magazine aisle. Feb 15 e018. Unfriend the remaining friends b it don't quit FB.
Breathe in and out.
Stage subpar RSS reader. FB is now like a really subpar rss reader. You can follow and unfollow ppl at will w/o them needing to accept a friend request. With the option to follow and unfollow in place, you don't follow anybody. If a Facebook live video is really worth see mg, it will show up a few days later on a YouTube like site.
Stage almost post mortem, why did that take so long. A lost decade of my life. A platform stepped in between me and my personal friends leeched and sold parts of it like Michael Douglas on wall street.
Laptop breaks. You start to notice the trees flowers and pa0er more. Finally revive blog.
Taken the feeling it's called feeling human.
More reading on this topic:
https://om.co/2018/02/20/the-1-reason-facebook-wont-ever-change/
