Leaving Facebook

It’s time: I am leaving Facebook behind. Although I enjoy hearing news from my family, friends, and colleagues, I have been increasingly fed up with Facebook’s corporate behavior and with the deleterious effects of Facebook (and social media, more generally) on our society.

I’ve been planning to take this step for over a year, imagining a lengthy essay on the detriments of social media in general and Facebook in particular, complete with citations to relevant literature. But I’ve never found the time to do a thorough, thoughtful job, so this brief note will have to do. I encourage you to watch the excellent documentary, The Social Dilemma, and to peruse some of the articles linked below.

I’m not deleting my Facebook account – and may still post professional content there when needed. But I won’t be monitoring my ‘feed’ and thus, sadly, will miss your news and updates; send me an email, give me a call, or stop by for a visit! If you wish to follow my ramblings, ‘follow’ this blog. Take care, be well, and enjoy some time offline.

Reading list

• Apple’s C.E.O. Is Making Very Different Choices From Mark Zuckerberg – Podcast interview with Tim Cook – The New York Times
• Facebook’s Tone-Deaf Attack on Apple – The New York Times
• People Want Real Change From Facebook. Its ‘Supreme Court’ Isn’t Delivering – The New York Times
• Facebook is quietly pressuring its independent fact-checkers to change their rulings – Fast Company
• Does Facebook Use Sensitive Data for Advertising Purposes? – Communications of the ACM
• They Used to Post Selfies. Now They’re Trying to Reverse the Election. Right-wing influencers embraced extremist views, and Facebook rewarded them. – The New York Times
• Twitter and Facebook Lock Trump’s Accounts After Violence on Capitol Hill – The New York Times
• Facebook Widens Ban on Political Ads as Alarm Rises Over Election. Political ads will be banned indefinitely after polls close on Nov. 3 and the company plans new steps to limit misinformation about the results. – The New York Times
• Facebook Keeps Data Secret, Letting Conservative Bias Claims Persist – National Public Radio
• How Facebook entrenches itself – The New York Times
• Russians Again Targeting Americans With Disinformation, Facebook and Twitter Say – The New York Times
• Clean Up Your Act, Facebook, or We’re Leaving – The New York Times
• Facebook’s Decisions Were ‘Setbacks for Civil Rights,’ Audit Finds – The New York Times
• Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable – Pew Research Center

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“A two-year, independent audit of Facebook’s civil rights policies and practices repeatedly faulted the company for its lax responses to hate speech and misinformation, my colleague Mike Isaac wrote.

“The report commissioned by the company suggests that Facebook isn’t just a mirror reflecting our sometimes nasty and divided world, but a site that’s making things worse by pulling people into self-reinforcing extremist beliefs.

“Greg Bensinger, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board, wrote that a major takeaway from the audit is that ‘even when Facebook commits to reforms, it almost never does enough.’”

– The Tech Giants’ Invisible Helpers, On Tech newsletter, The New York Times