I joined Facebook in 2008. Back then it was fun. Dare I say even heartwarming? I reconnected with so many childhood friends that I hadn’t seen in decades. Some lived across the country. Others across the world. I got to see what they were up to and how so many of them achieved their dreams. That was really nice. We exchanged many “Remember when?” types of messages. I loved scrolling through pictures of their children and loved ones. When former students found me on Facebook, well that was the absolute best. It made my teacher heart so incredibly happy. What a gift it was to see who they became as adults! Back then, Facebook felt like a nice place to be.
For me, Facebook doesn’t feel like that anymore and it hasn’t in a very long time. The switch from a reverse chronological feed (where we got to see all of our friends’ posts with the most recent posts at the top of our feed) to an algorithm-based feed designed to generate ridiculous amounts of wealth for Facebook changed everything in all the worst ways. The algorithm got better and better at exploiting our emotions and distorting our exposure to other people’s opinions. Our Facebook experience became a virtual echo chamber where an algorithm sized us up and only fed us what it thought we already believed. We became more and more polarized and started demonizing each other in the process. Facts and the truth no longer mattered. Sure, friends’ and families’ back to school, prom, and vacation pictures were sprinkled into our feeds, but I started to wonder at what cost. Is our mental health and our children’s mental health a reasonable price to pay for doomscrolling? Is it all worth it as long as we can find cheap stuff to buy on Facebook Marketplace? Facebook/Meta has certainly made more money, but has it made the world a better place? For me, the answer is no.
I joined Facebook in 2008. Back then it was fun. It’s not anymore, so I’m done. I know quitting Facebook won’t change the world, but it will change my world. So, I’m off. Hope to see you in the real world, folks!
Mommyhood 