Escaping Meta...

Social Media Addicts Anonymous meeting about to commence.

I have begun my foray into rehab. I feel it will require a 12-step process, of which I am completely uneducated of. So, regarding my addiction to social media. My drug of choice is Facebook, with the occasional dabble in Instagram. What's App did not float my boat, and Twitter/X never really appealed; it was like a hard drug I was afraid to try. Snap Chat and TikTok seemed like the domain of the bubblegum kids, so never appealed. I felt my social media consumption was under control, sticking with just two platforms.

So, it began innocently enough. Do you remember that silly game, farm-something? I got sucked in by my desire to play with that. It seemed such a worthwhile distraction from the everyday stress of earning a living and managing an adult life. The game is designed to suck you in, then suck your friends in, then force you out of your insulated social bubble, and interact with strangers. It was, quite simply, the beginnings of aggressive algorithms to spread information collecting in a viral manner.

I didn't play that for too long, as it wasn't really my cup of tea, but I got caught up on the idea of being able to locate old acquaintances and that was a real treat. I have reconnected with people from 45 years back in my life. Yes, people I knew as a child. I reconnected with former co-workers, friends, people I met once, but never forgot. A number of my "friends" were people I met playing the silly farm game, or the two other games I played for a while.

I saw the opportunity to build by fledgling photography biz through social interaction, but it never really took off for me. I used FB as a gallery to showcase some of my work and sort of relied upon the granular, organic threading to build interest. Zuckyboy was really starting to push monetizing the site by now, advancing his desires beyond the advertising dollars, and looking directly at the wallets of small biz and entrepreneurs such as myself. Facebook marketplace became a thing, and messenger became integrated along the way, too.

I began to doubt the true intent of FB by now and was not about to open my wallet to Zuckyland. Still, I trudged along, enjoying all of the other perks of my friends list, and my likes, follows, mentions, and places. I allowed tracking to follow my every movement, and anyone could just look at my profile and see everything I was up to, at any time. Things were good, and I was having fun, posting photos of my dinner, and my dog, car, wife, weird bumper sticker, memes, and sharing content that I thought was fun.

Then, some dude I barely paid attention to in the world, rolled down a gold escalator, and everything changed.

Years later, I need to get the needle out of my arm. It took two full presidential terms, and the start of another, to bring me to this point. The beloved app that so many of us use for fun and enjoyment, or in some cases as a source of information (and some even exclusive source of info) has revealed itself to be one of the greatest assets for fomenting civil unrest and disinformation. Most of us addicts will say that we only use it for entertainment value, but frankly, it's not entertaining anymore. Addicts that go into rehab often say they don't want to live the lifestyle anymore, but many falter in their journey and end up there again.

I don't want to be an addict of social media anymore. I have joined BlueSky, and as it's purported to be similar to "Original Twitter", I don't see the appeal. I check my account maybe once a week and am very careful about who and what I follow. I have encouraged friends to find me there. Consider my account at BlueSky like methadone. It's a replacement.

Hi. My name is Rob, and I am a social media junkie.