Tag: Facebook

Social Fail

As I’ve drifted away from Facebook and twitter, I’ve tended to use IG and TikTok a lot more. FB has become such a chore I mostly post updates and comment on folks I follow. The overwhelming ads and “suggestions” is just not worth my time to scroll thru. IG is fast becoming an ad-engine as well. Tiktok is an awesome time-waster when I have down time. It’s sort of a way to disconnect and let my brain become numb.  Beyond that, social media in general isn’t really worth the effort most days. I setup a Bluesky account but I barely use it as well. If I have to force myself, what’s the point?

The good news is I find myself wanting to get back to my blog more. How’s that for irony?

Broken

I think I broke FB’s algorithm. heehee Or at least I hope so. I’ve been limiting my daily use for some time now. Lately, I’ve noticed the app displays the same content for days vs a random refresh every time I open it.  My thought process is the app thinks I haven’t viewed enough of my feed so it keeps showing me the same content hoping I’ll doom scroll thru it. You’d think it knows I almost always view my feed using the “recent” view option. 

Of course, it could just be yet another bug in the app they never seem to stop updating. They get it working fine and randomly a “security update” for the app rolls out and everything goes nuts for a week or so. The same thing has started happening with IG too. 

I’m not sure why I’m so tickled. I just find it humorous. it’s the little things I guess…

Gloomy News

If you’ve been living under a rock, it came out this week Facebook has been lying to us all along. A whistleblower came forward and spilled a bunch of dirt on the down right shitty behavior of FB, not that any of us should be surprised. Social media has become a poison in our lives IMO. It does far more harm than good. I get that social media is what we make it, but that argument only holds up in an unbiased scenario. FB has demonstrated they are manipulating us.

I’ve been weening myself off FB to the point I spend less than 15 mins online on any given day. Mostly, I peruse a few comments/profiles or share the occasional news article. There are days I get caught up in the “someone on the internet is wrong” mentality, but those are rare now. Frankly, it’s not worth it. I plan to eventually phase out sharing any news content at all as well. I turned off notifications for FB sometime ago and it has panned out to be an excellent decision.

Then we find out last week AT&T was the primary sponsor for the propaganda site OAN. [1] I wont’ link to them. The world is so used to scandal now, everyone just seemed to give a collective sigh and move on. I guess that was probably the goal. I already don’t use their products so can’t cancel my service….I highly recommend you do. OAN is the far right cousin to Fox News, with little to no pretense at propaganda. In a word, its vile.

I know I sound all doom and gloom, but the news as of late has me in a bit of a gloomy mood. I’ve been saying for awhile, we are headed for a calamity. Honestly, I think it’s coming soon. Scary stuff for sure but all I can control is me. I can control the content I read, use, and share. I can control my actions. I can control to whom I give my time and energy. If it wasn’t for my never ending sense of optimism, I think I’d need medication. I can see how folks get caught up in it and just go off the deep end.

These days my online presence is usually IG [2]Yes, I know FB owns it for gym inspiration and “the TikTok” [3]I love seeing folks go apocalyptic when I use “the” with the name for humor. I’d love to abandon social media all together, but I’m not there yet. I’d give in and be back. I figured this way, I’ll eventually just ween myself off. Hey, one can hope right? hehehe

References

References
↑1 I wont’ link to them.
↑2 Yes, I know FB owns it
↑3 I love seeing folks go apocalyptic when I use “the” with the name

Pics

Someone on FB asked me the other day why I don’t post many pics anymore. Well, I said some time ago I was pulling further away from FB. And while I haven’t made the break completely, I just don’t feel the need to give them my data to harvest. And with the recent Instagram purchase scandal, that decision was reaffirmed. I do still post random pics but mostly of Cooper and/or pics shared by others of me already on FB. Ninety percent of my activities there are commenting on friends stuff, my blog updates, news stories I comment on, and Foursquare updates. As FB pushes more and more to share all our data, I am sharing less and less. I’ve already begun going thru and unliking pretty much every page or commercial site I ever “liked.” The bombardment of ads increases more and more every month it seems.

So if you really wanna see more pics of me you’re gonna have to jump over to Google+ from time to time. I moved all my pic storage to picasa before Goolge+ came out but now that it is all nicely integrated, I like it even more. I get tons and tons of free storage and the extra storage is a fraction of the cost that sites like flickr charge. There is no way I can post all the pics I take to my blog w/o overloading my subscribers email boxes. lol I am working on a photo album link to pop up on the blog sidebar though. (If you want to add me on Google+, click the sidebar link to my profile there.) [1]Keep in mind, I do not add profiles w/porn or nudity. I have no problem with either but it is not the purpose of my social profile.

On a slight tangent, I’ve noticed several friends and blog buddies pulling away from FB as well. Some have deactivated their accounts all together while most have just logged out for extended periods of time. I discovered this week even my roomie has ditched FB for awhile. I guess I’m not the only one tired of the data harvest that is FB these days. That is pretty much all it is now. They’re saving grace is user volume. But like myspace, they might wake up one day and find themselves irrelevant. More and more of my friend list is making the jump to Google+.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to ditch FB completely.

References

References
↑1 Keep in mind, I do not add profiles w/porn or nudity. I have no problem with either but it is not the purpose of my social profile.