Facebook killed the blog star

I deactivated my Facebook account last night.

Unlike most decisions I make, this one was on the spur of the moment. It had been a long day, a long week and a long year for Facebooking. It had also been a long, trying day personally, and I suppose I was fed up.

The main reason that it felt right was the "lurkers." Lurkers is a term for people who rarely share of themselves in any way on social media. Rather, they watch others and sometimes kibbitz and judge quietly from the sidelines. Always spectators and never players, they have no skin in the game, and I find them cowardly in this way.

One reason I joined Facebook was to share with others and keep in touch, with text, images and videos. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas, my occasional creative works, and promoting friends' comedy shows or other interests that benefit from additional eyeballs.

When others only consume and never contribute, it chaps me, as you can tell. I had an incident months ago where I posted a rather stylistic and amusing short essay about how shitty my commute was. I made the mistake of including an unnecessary reference to mother-in-laws, and it wasn't long before a lurking in-law fired up the switchboard to make sure eeeeverybody got a good look at the big bad words I had written, causing strife and woe to all around.

I could have been a lot more charitable in my writing, and I should have been more careful about others' feelings. I freely admit, I shot myself in the foot on that one. It is not in my nature to bash an otherwise innocent bystander. On the other hand, I consider nearly everything I put down on paper or electronic papyrus to be an exercise in creative writing, to one degree or another. And for it to blow up in my face rubbed me the wrong way.

The things that tweaked it for me was that none of these people even post pictures of their cat, much less discussions, family photos, messages, etc. So in the equation between me and them, I was carrying all the downside. Fuck that.

One might point out that I could simply block them, and I did. But still, the social stinginess still rankled. Not everyone has a need to express and be heard like I do, I get that. But holding back to such a perfect degree just seems wrong.

I've made much of this one incident, but it seems to be a common and recurring through-line in many Facebook interactions, and it's a recurrence I can live without.

When I write, it is right in my wheelhouse to choose cheeky, ribald turns of phrase, as well as topics. I playfully push the envelope, it's just how I like to do it. Lately it seems that even my more innocuous little jabs had pinched others' toes and caused the hurting of butts. While it is also in my nature to smile through these little dust-ups and recommend that others suck it up and recall that "names will never hurt you," I don't seek to hurt others, and it gets tiring explaining myself and apologizing.

Another reason I'm happy to be away from it is that Facebook is a seductive time-suck. All day, every day, if you see me hypnotized by my phone, it would be to catch up on my Facebook timeline, a list of goings-on for people and organizations I have some or no interest in. Now that I am "free" of this constant and willing distraction, I realize how much time I had given to it. It is not a frivolous amount. I find myself looking for and finding worthier endeavors in its place.

Finally, as I have long suspected, Facebook's Status Update made it easy to jot down the brief ideas that crossed my mind, but it sort of discouraged long-form thoughts like those I used to post here. While my creativity's waning may not have been fully due to Facebook's influence, I am certain it didn't help. I hope to see some contemplative wordiness return to this space. And extended journaling like this can be very helpful in luring the Muse down from the mountaintop, and that would be most welcome indeed!

One regret that set in within one day is that I won't be so easily able to track and promote friends' comedy shows. There may be other ways to achieve this, but Facebook's interface did make it convenient most of the time.  Ah, well.

One final regret worth noting is that Facebook's interface made it easy to share my creative works with those within and without my social circle, including drawings, videos and written works. I can and probably will turn to my website and YouTube accounts to display my brain's wares, but I will likely miss FB's utility there. On the other hand, I still have a Tumblr account somewhere. While I may be trading one social media platform for another, I am glad for the opportunity to shake things up a bit, and I am hopeful that the change will being welcome new exchanges.

I am encouraged by the fact that this is more than I've written in a good long while already. Let's hope it's a trend that continues.