So Long Metaverse

The time finally came. I left the Metaverse; Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Threads are in my rearview mirror.

When I first joined Facebook, back when Facebook was all shiny and new, it was a vastly different place than it is now. The community was fresh and friendly and excited. The vibe was all about connecting with friends and chattering about going out to dinner or seeing a show or the latest antics of cats and dogs. The key aspect was connection and socializing. It was “social media” after all.

That was then.

Today’s Facebook is not friendly. It’s not fun. It’s no longer about keeping you connected with your friends. What it is about is selling Facebook users to as many advertisers as possible. It’s about social engineering, subtly and not so subtly guiding users in the direction that Meta executives want you to be moving. Feeds now feature fewer and fewer posts from our friends or the groups and pages we’ve joined, and more about product placement, and a wild array of things “you might like,” punctuated with posts from your friends with “do you want to see this in your feed?” buttons. When you click the “yes” button, Facebook responds with a message that they’ll do it “for a while.”

What the fuck, Zuck?!?

These are my friends and interests that I’ve chosen to engage with. Of course I want to see every one of their posts every day until I decide I’m done.

Starting January 1, 2025, if you continue to use the platform, you consent to Meta being able to track your internet activity ad infinitum, whether or not you’re logged into Facebook or Instagram or Messenger or Threads. Items you peruse on Amazon suddenly become fodder for the algorithm, and you get presented with posts and advertisements for the very thing you just bought from your favorite online retailer, or researched on completely unrelated sites.

Security on Facebook has also become an absolute joke, with nefarious actors cloning accounts right and left and then using them to post falsehoods, porn, and whatever else they want under stolen identities, completely unfettered. Facebook support couldn’t care less. Complaints fall on deaf ears, or responded to with veiled threats of account suspension; enforcement of policies is inconsistent at best, draconian at worst.

Well, I’d finally had my fill, and spent several hours today removing my account, as well as all the connected pages and profiles. Without my knowledge, Meta had tied business pages to my unrelated Instagram account, making it impossible keep the house of cards from crashing down on itself. There is no help or support system at Meta, and it’s probably just as well. The platform is so convoluted and poorly engineered that there’s no consistency to the way accounts are managed, and I don’t believe there’s any real way for a support technician to actually understand how the system works.

Seriously, leaving a social media platform should require no more than a couple of mouseclicks.

In any event, it’s behind me now. With Meta in the rearview mirror, I can concentrate on this website, which will act as my social hub, with links to my YouTube channels, my Bluesky profile, and the true communities and family-like connections I’ve formed through interaction elsewhere.

Cheers! and Happy New Year.

Links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GerenM63
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gerenm.bsky.social