It annoys me how much of a grip Facebook still has on being able to digitally participate in your local community.
I got rid of my Facebook account years ago, and have no real interest to return, but I must admit I sometimes think about it when I run up against things that I would really benefit from being a part of.
Our local municipal utilities only post announcements on Facebook. Whenever there is a change to our trash pickup schedule due to a holiday or a weather event, I have absolutely no idea.
When there’s a new restaurant in town, chances are good that if I want to look at their menu or see anything more than just their business hours, it requires looking at their Facebook profile (which I can’t do without an account).
Local events like concerts, parades, and farmers markets are organized on Facebook. Club meetings. Political gatherings. Volunteering opportunities. Even the local library only makes their announcements on Facebook.
Most annoying of all, Facebook Marketplace is basically the only way to sell things locally. Craigslist is almost completely dead, and a couple of the experiences I’ve had there have been a bit shady, to say the least. I tend to avoid it completely, and instead opt for Facebook Marketplace by proxy: any time I have something I want to try to sell I have to send photos and a description to my wife, who posts and handles the transactions for me.
I suppose that given these difficulties, and the fact that my partner is on Facebook anyway, I should just bite the bullet and sign up for an account. It’s not like Facebook isn’t tracking me anyway.
But I don’t want to. Even if it’s just a symbolic gesture, I don’t want to actively provide value to Facebook. I don’t want to see ads that give them money. I don’t want to send a signal to others that I’m okay with the things they’re doing, like emotionally manipulating people into mental health crises, or interfering with elections.
And also, to be blunt, I don’t want to be disappointed in the people I like. Back when I was on Facebook, I often found that people I had an otherwise high opinion of or pleasant experiences with would share things that made me second-guess my relationship with them, or cause me to alter my opinion of them. I suppose I want to know when people in my life do bad things or have horrible beliefs, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s an element of “ignorance is bliss” here.
I’m not going to re-join Facebook. Where possible, I’ll help people find alternatives, especially with creating their own web presence or using alternative social media on more open, federated platforms.
But at the end of the day, I’m mostly sad for the grip that Facebook still has when it comes to local businesses and governments sharing content online.