February 1, 2017

"Since the end of the 2016 election, and especially since it resulted in the victory of Donald J. Trump as president, Facebook has become utterly intolerable."

"I took the application off my phone when I realized, a few days after the election, that I felt angry every time I scrolled through my newsfeed.... Deleting the application made me feel more disconnected from these online friends from all walks of my life, but also happier and more calm. One of my many friends also feeling this way, Sarah Barak, wrote on Facebook recently: 'I feel hectored. I’ll be happier if I unfollow the worst offenders... The problem with Facebook political rants is this: It is not Twitter. I do not 'follow' my high school best friends because of their insightful political commentary; I want to see updates on their lives and pictures of their adorable children. Unlike Twitter, I don’t want to unfollow or unfriend them because of their rants, because if I do so, I’ll miss out on the all-important baby announcements and updates."

Writes Bethany Mandel in "Facebook Dead At 12, A Victim Of 2016."

Reminds me of what I wrote on Facebook yesterday:
All the politics on Facebook! Trump's fault, right? It's probably not worth begging the people of Facebook to talk about other things than Trump. Trump certainly is the most exciting character to appear in the world in my entire lifetime. But can we think of some other people and things to talk about? Here's the new Bob Dylan recording (of an old Frank Sinatra song).
(I keep my Facebook stuff private and only friend people I know in off-blog life.)

69 comments:

zipity said...

Had a FB account, briefly, probably 6 years ago. Couldn't take the constant bitching.

Deleted the account. God only knows how much time and aggravation I've saved myself.

Never going back.

Paging Mr. Zuckerberg, call for you from MySpace....

Matt Sablan said...

Facebook is utterly intolerable if you let it become Politicsbook.

Seeing Red said...

I have never had FB.

As my daughter matures, she's finding it's not all it's cracked up to be.




Professional lady said...

I never make political posts on Facebook and I never comment on them or "like" them. I'm also in it for the baby pictures. The political posts are for the most part unpersuasive, shallow, out of context, misleading, and annoying. Lately, there have been several posts about how the political posts are getting out of hand from the worst offenders. Seems that the worst offenders are the most lacking in self awareness.

PB said...

Their business could disappear in a flash.

madAsHell said...

It's all spam, cute puppies and pictures of chocolate cake.

Expat(ish) said...

I was able to suppress almost 100% of political commentary on FB by banning key producers: NYT, Buzzfeed, etc.

Only 1% of my "friends" (actual people I know) were political without starting from an article by Reich.

They ruined it for me, so I dropped FB in September last year. I do not miss it very much or very often, and I read more books now.

I do notice (and resent) how much time my wife spends on it, which is funny, because I think I used to spend *more*.

I left twitter because the business people I followed (VC's, P/E guys in tech, tech leaders) went from 1% political to 50% political. And you can't block anything on twitter.

So I left that in Sept. I have not missed twitter for 15 seconds and often don't even hear the name very often anymore. Odd.

-XC

Farmer said...

I just signed out a week ago and have no intention of going back. I have a small friends list - only family and a handful of close friends. Maybe 20-25 people. I've unfollowed most of them because of this stuff, so there's no real point in my being there anymore.

Michael K said...

I have several threads on facebook and avoid having too many "friends."

One group is about basset hounds and we all post pictures and advice to owners.

Another are family and real friends, probably 20 people.

Third are some "internet friends" whose opinions I am interested in. One of Richard Fernandez who writes the "Belmont Club" blog.

Another is Michael Totten who writes good articles about places in the world. He is a Democrat and his threads are full of angry Democrats but I try to ignore them.

Having too many "friends" you don't know is probably a lot of the problem.

YoungHegelian said...

The problem I have with the constant political whining on FB is that there seems to be no depths of tendentious bullshit that they will not plumb. The quantity is bad enough, but the quality is what kills it. There is not a glimmer from these people that they have any clue as to the ideological underpinnings of modern Leftism (e.g. standpoint theory).

I was in college with quite a few of these people. I was in classes with them. My question to them is "How did you get so stupid in the intervening years?" You didn't use to be that stupid".

Sarah from VA said...

Lucky for Facebook that they bought Instagram -- I know a lot of people who are moving all their posting and reading over there. It's harder to make a political post if you have to accompany it with a picture. Even if you do, it's much easier for people to just glance over your picture and ignore the caption.

I really feel like Facebook is going to die because of this over-politicization, and it's too bad. I have a large family and without Facebook I would never have been able to know my cousins and their families as well as I do. I have something like 30 cousins, many of whom now have large families of their own. In the pre-Facebook era, my brother stood in line at a college eatery next to one of his first cousins for 20 minutes, having no idea who he was next to until her mother came and said hello. But lately everybody's posts have been drowned out by a few friends who I love and want to see updates on their lives -- but who have stopped sharing anything personal about themselves in favor of non-stop Trump outrage. (One of them doesn't even POST political things. She just "likes" a lot of political posts, and while you used to be able to prevent Facebook from showing you somebody's "likes", they either took that ability away or moved it to where I cannot find it. Probably because these political organizations pay to show up in people's feeds.)

Anyway, it's irritating. I really did enjoy hearing about people more often than the once-yearly Christmas Card.

eric said...

I was pleasantly surprised to find out during this last election cycle that some of my less conservative friends were supporting Trump.

I don't mind the politics on Facebook. At least, as long as it remains civil. I've been called a liar and a racist a few times now. But when I challenge them to take it up with me next time we are face to face, they usually shut up quickly.

Wince said...

Facebook recently suspended my account for using a pseudonym; all other registration info was accurate.

Had used FB account just to browse around, not to post. Used FB account to register to comment once in a while.

No other violations or abuse cited.

Buh-bye FB.

Laslo Spatula said...

I've read stories like this, but I never thought it would happen to me…

I was reading in Facebook about one of my old college buddies, and noticed a photo of him and his new Girlfriend. Man, she is smoking hot! Nice breasts, a coy smile, big blue eyes: I was practically ready to masturbate right there at the bus stop!

I sent them an invitation to dinner, and they agreed. The two of them came to my place and had Garlic Bread, Spaghetti-O’s and Wine.

Everyone was getting a little tipsy as we went into the living room. It was mostly talk between me and my friend about the Old Times when his Girlfriend said “Do you want to know something funny?”

“Sure,” I said, trying hard not to stare at her breasts.

“There are three of us here,” she said, smiling that coy smile. “Just the right number for a Threesome!”

“A Threesome? With her being one of the three? Hell Yeah!

So as quick as that we were all naked in the living room, and her body was stupendous: I am a sucker for a little ring in the belly-button of her taut abdomen!

I didn’t know the protocol for a Threesome, so I figured I’d let her begin. Sure enough, she said “Let’s get started,” and then pulled a strap-on dildo out of her purse! This was going to be interesting!

Then I don’t know what happened: I ended up sucking my friend’s cock while his Girlfriend fucked me in the ass with the strap-on dildo. It wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but — still — she was naked!

The next day I looked them up on Facebook, and they had posted a photo of the Spaghetti-O’s and Garlic Bread, adding the note “A meal made for three! Hee Hee!”

I wonder if any other Facebook friends have Hot Girlfriends — I know I’m gonna start looking, now!

I am Laslo.

Sydney said...

I'm trying to avoid politics on Facebook. I gave into temptation recently and pushed back after all the anti-Trump crap I was seeing. Made the mistake of commenting on my sister-in-law's post that was critical of the Women's March (or was it Womyn?) I agreed with her and said even harsher things. Then my mom called me and told me my son and his girlfriend had attended it. She saw it on Facebook. I had missed that post. I said things in my comment that I wouldn't have said to their faces, even though I am sure my son knows how I feel about that kind of agitprop. Faux pas major.

Francisco D said...

I have never used Facebook. It just doesn't work with my profession.

Since the election campaign started I have heard 7-8 complaints per week from patients who were angered by political differences with others on Facebook. Families and friends have been hardest hit.

Larry J said...

I never opened a Facebook account because I just don't see it as adding value to my life for the amount of time consumed. It doesn't sound like I've missed very much. While privacy really doesn't exist, I see no reason to needlessly volunteer information about myself to a company where the customers are the product, which brings to mind this classic video from from Onion TV about Facebook.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I have never been on Facebook but own some of their stock. Is this a trend to abandon FB due to politics seeping through it? If so, should I sell my stock?

Joe said...

I keep my Facebook friends list very small. I get updates from only my few closest friends and direct family. One brother (you know who you are) keeps commenting on articles from leftists friends/colleagues, which are easily blocked. One niece is becoming completely unhinged and may go into the "ignore" column.

Last summer, I had to drop almost all group memberships due to almost all of them being extremely politicized, despite the claims they wouldn't be when I joined long before that. When I very politely asked some people to remove their inflammatory posts, the moderators just shrugged and ignored their rules.

The few groups I've remained a member of follow the rules with an iron fist. In one, someone posted a fairly benign, but still political remark and poll. It was gone within three days.

(One daughter posts stuff that runs extreme on the pro-Trump side, which can be very annoying, but I'm able to block most of it. Can't block her since I need my weekly fix of pictures of my granddaughters.)

Mark O said...

Ann said, "Trump certainly is the most exciting character to appear in the world in my entire lifetime."

Modify world with "political" and I agree. Elvis was exciting.

Scott M said...

It depends on what you're using it for. I run a family of connected groups based on sci-fi and writing and we're nearing 10k members. I don't mess around with my own personal feed much nor do I read my home feed (which is populated by posts from friends and family), but I DO interact inside those groups. One of them, Space Opera, has an explicitly and strongly enforced anti-politics rule: contemporary/real-world politics are verboten. If you want to talk about things that happened in sci-fi works, fine. The second a thread becomes RL political, it gets nuked. As a result, we have a very active, very happy membership :)

We get complaints about that from time to time, but we've been doing it so long now that the group actually self-polices...which is nice. I would say that the majority of the complaints I get PM'd (private message) about are generally left-leaning individuals that don't understand why a thread linking to an article about why there aren't more minority sci-fi writers is considered off limits. I always strive to have considerate, rational conversations with these types of complainers, trying to maintain an aloof (dare I say cruel) neutrality, but sometimes, they're just askin' for it... I was recently told that avoiding such discussions is "blind" and "self-limiting".

Unknown said...

I am lucky that I have a large friends list, but never developed a Facebook craze, and the few "close friends" that I have that I get emails about rarely post politics.

But our family has been very cautious about posting things, just because who needs a post made years ago to come back and bite you?

If Facebook dies, I hope it's core feature of connecting with people still hangs around somewhere. Without the politics. One would think that Facebook would see Twitter self-destructing because it's run by far leftist Gulag guards.

--Vance

Achilles said...

At some point the leftists will realize their bullshit is turning off the majority of people.

Greg Hlatky said...

Politics plus anything equals politics.

I've signed off FB because I just couldn't take the constant Watch-Bill-Maher-DESTROY-Republicans crap and stupid memes ground out at piecework rates in some Soros-funded boiler room by otherwise unemployable SJWs.

"Oh, just don't read those!" I'm told. Yes, and just eat around that fly in your soup. I don't have the energy to unfollow people who pass on this tripe. So, no, no more.

I Callahan said...

I grew up in Detroit. When the crack scourge hit, everyone I grew up with fled to the suburbs. We couldn't because at the time, my father was a city employee, and had to live there because of residency rules. So I pretty much lost all contact with my childhood and high school friends.

The facebook came along. I was able to get in contact with every single one of them again. It was like a godsend. Then Barack Obama happened. And for 8 years, I either argued with, or ignored, people that I thought I knew well, but apparently didn't. Then Trump happened, and made Facebook even more depressing. So the author is right. That said - I did unfollow some people, because I was so pissed off at them I didn't care about their family pictures and kids anymore. It was cathartic.

I'm going to stay with Facebook for the above reasons.

Fernandinande said...

madAsHell said...
It's all spam, cute puppies and pictures of chocolate cake.


Chocolate lab puppies eating spam and (not-chocolate) cake is my BFF!

Amy said...

Our community uses FB as a communications device, to alert for association meetings, lost dogs and such. Works very well.
I have used it for work and socially.

It got so bad after the election (and again recently after the inaug) that it was unbearable. Someone told me to 'unfollow' the offending posters (not 'unfriend' them) and promised me a much better experience.
I did it, and I'm back to kittens, babies and chocolate cakes.
Works for me!

John Christopher said...

I sorta enjoy knowing that so many people I love and respect and who I know would get along great if they were randomly dropped in a room together, act like the Hatfields and McCoys online.

As long as the internet has existed, I've had great fun watching people get mad online. I can picture their meaty hands just typing in anger.

Jessica said...

I recently quit facebook. I took a break for about 3 weeks after the election, then dipped back in, then quit for good on January 1. And I was a heavy user (checking in probably 10 times a day). It has been hard (I'm embarrassed how addicted I had become to instant gratificiation and emotional zing facebook provided) but a very good thing for my peace of mind. I'm a conservative, and 75% of my friends are liberals. (I grew up in the Bay Area, went to Ivy League schools, am a lawyer... so yeah.) I realized I was beginning to loathe some of my friends and family who I enjoyed in real life. Even if I unfollowed political ranters, I would sometimes seek out their profiles just to make myself angry! That was when I realized I needed to disconnect. Facebook was catering to a dark impulse in myself - an impulse towards anger, isolation, and self-pity.

Facebook provides an immediate window into the inner political mind of our friends, which is not often a good thing. "In real life" we don't blast friends or acquaintances with our political views right off the bat. We approach, we chat, we temper, we react, we refrain, we avoid when necessary. Facebook trashes all of that human instinct and sensitivity.

Virgil Hilts said...

Amy, we/most of our neighbors are members of Nextdoor; if anyone tries to post something political they are hammered without mercy, which has kept Nextdoor focused on its mission (spreading absolute paranoia about local crime).

ddh said...

Many people post political items on Facebook in the expectation that only people who agree with them will respond.

My cousin posted something on Facebook saying that President-elect Trump is Hitler. I commented that he should calm down and get some perspective because Trump is far from being Hitler or Mussolini, even if you don't like him. I didn't use profanity or say that he was being stupid or anything inherently offensive or troll-like, I just disagreed.

I was unfriended within 10 seconds.

Michael K said...

"If so, should I sell my stock?"

I was talking to a colleague yesterday who was saying he regretted his broker buying facebook stock for him as he has lost $12,000 so far., You might check.

I also belong to some groups that avoid politics. Like P 38s and P 51s and a bunch of aviation groups. I am also in the USC group to follow the football team but that is filling with leftist politics, especially since the travel ban. Lots of middle eastern students and alumni at USC. The Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt was a USC Petroleum Engineering grad.

John Christopher said...

Virgil, re: Nextdoor

I can't tell you how many comments on Nextdoor in my DC neighborhood begin: "I'm not racist, but. . ."

I was very pleased when I was reported for an inappropriate comment by multiple neighbors because the inherent sarcasm of my one-word response "Interesting" was obvious. My first and only Nextdoor comment so far.

RAH said...

Funny how all these complaints about politics on Facebook are since Trump got elected I saw lots of pro Obama posts pre election.

mockturtle said...

One of my daughters is still on FB and, as an outspoken 'deplorable' she has received a lot of push-back and hostility. As she is half black, her detractors can't very well call her a racist but they call her everything else. Fortunately, none of it fazes her. She gives back as good as she gets. Recently, she told me that a few of the virulently anti-Trumps on her FB have softened in their attitudes so maybe there is hope for them yet.

mockturtle said...

"If so, should I sell my stock?"

I would. I think it's probably just about run its course.

Yancey Ward said...

I have related this story before, but it is fit for this blog entry.

I have a close relative who a couple of years ago made a big deal about how her FB account was not for political purposes. She had become frustrated with some of her FB friends who were constantly sending her stuff with political themes. She stated that she wasn't interested in anything political being tied to her account, and that she would unfriend anyone who kept sending her such stuff, or making such comments on her own posts. Knowing her very well, I knew her real complaint, unstated, was that her friends and her simply didn't share the same political views. However, at that point, she had only made family and friends related postings, so I thought her request was quite reasonable on its face and gave it no further thought, especially since I don't use Facebook for relaying any material of any kind- not even family related stuff.

However, as last Summer advanced, her own postings increasingly became a Hillary! campaign ad platform, and by September, there was so little material of interest to me, I simply stopped visiting her page altogether with the plan of returning after the election when things had calmed down. However, things didn't calm down- the rants she went on after the election only escalated to the point where she was basically proclaiming all of Trump's supporters as ugly racists and misogynists. So, after a week of this in mid-November, I stopped visiting the page. Before the election, I was a very, very light user of Facebook, I am now down to being a non-user altogether other than having the account so I can post comments on sites like National Review or Powerline.

Yancey Ward said...

Jessica wrote:

"Facebook provides an immediate window into the inner political mind of our friends, which is not often a good thing. "In real life" we don't blast friends or acquaintances with our political views right off the bat. We approach, we chat, we temper, we react, we refrain, we avoid when necessary. Facebook trashes all of that human instinct and sensitivity."

Yes, this!

I Callahan said...

Facebook trashes all of that human instinct and sensitivity.

Jessica,

I agree with your overall point, except for the above sentence. I think you are seeing human nature at it's truest form when you go online. Maybe I just have less confidence in humanity than I used to...

Yancey Ward said...

I Callahan,

I think maybe calling it instinct is a bit off the mark, but I think her real point is that tact is what is missing in a lot of online correspondence. I wonder if it isn't the case that it is missing because when you speak on-line, especially on FB, what you are doing isn't engaging with a specific person but a wide audience, and you lose that governor in ones self that employs tact that is designed to smooth social interactions, and to also avoid dangerously enraging someone against ones self.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Should Facebook shadow ban political posts? That is, adjust its algorithms to lean out when it comes to putting such posts in the news feed. That's a question some team of executives at Facebook may now be considering.

mockturtle said...

In an era where the American flag is considered a political threat, it's hard to pick one's battles.

Sebastian said...

The further question is, what do lefties hope to achieve by making FB "intolerable" with their incessant political bitching? Of course, most won't think it intolerable to be able to vent and to receive constant tribal affirmation. In some ways, they just can't help it. Power and politics are the lifeblood of progressivism, and as a matter of faith society and the culture must be changed. Saints don't rest. But beyond that blind ethic of conviction, they also aim to turn anything they touch "intolerable," to flood any zone with political crap, to turn up the outrage to 11 24/7, in hopes of mobilizing their forces, presumably, and to weaken the will of exhausted non-progs.

Pianoman said...

I couldn't agree more. I haven't used FB in any meaningful way since October.

If I want to use it again, I'll need to start unfriending / unfollowing people. I hate doing that, because I still have hope that FB can return to "normal" soon. Maybe I'll give it another couple months.

Unknown said...

I had to cancel a Facebook account I had because I could not stand the political opinions and social commentary of my very-real life friends and siblings. See, the problem was me: all the time I was in disagreement, my political views never match those of them. I could every now and then debate, but I didn't have that much time (or will) for that. I always hated Facebook for attempting to absorb my life. I'd rather blog for that.

The Elder said...

I deactivated my Facebook account last week. I used it primarily to see pictures of my grandchildren and to stay in touch with High School classmates from 47 years ago. But I could no longer tolerate the incessant flow of "shared" political crap from both political sides that I had to wade through each day just to find something of value to me.

It appears that there are too many of my (former) Facebook "friends" who have nothing better to do than spend their day "sharing" this crap. I would rather not endure what these people are doing and be able to have warm feelings of true friendship toward them when we get together than to continue to diminish those feelings by cheapening the word "friend" as it is used by Facebook.

So if anyone sees pictures of my grandchildren, would you please forward them to me?

Etienne said...

I was once on Facebook and Twitter. I didn't understand it.

It seems to attract people who have no social skills.

If I want to argue with someone, I go to a bar. At least there you can jab your finger into the blokes chest for emphasis.

Meade said...

"So if anyone sees pictures of my grandchildren, would you please forward them to me?"

Sure will.

John henry said...

there is no way that I will allow anyone to use facebook on any of my computers. Whenever anyone does, it opens a whole can of worms and leaves worm droppings all over the hard drive.

Facebook's EULA at one time, don't know if it still does, had a clause that allowed them to use anythign they found on a member's computer for any purpose.

Your daughter's baby pictures? Yup. They could use them in advertising.

I have NDAs with a lot of my clients. If a picture of theirs, that is on my hard drive, showed up on Facebook I could get sued.

Yeah, I really need that aggravation.

If my life ever gets that boring, I'll take a hiking tour of Afghanistan. If I am still craving adventure after that, then maybe I'll sign up for Facebook.

I've been online, active and public for more than 25 years now. A founder and member of more maillists and SIGs than I can count. I wouldn't change a thing. But Facebook? I just don't see the point and am unwilling to take the risk.

John Henry

John henry said...


Blogger The Elder said...

I deactivated my Facebook account last week. I used it primarily to see pictures of my grandchildren and to stay in touch with High School classmates from 47 years ago.

for something like this, maillists will do everything you need. You can set one up and lock it down so only those people you want to share stuff with can access it.

John Henry

rastajenk said...

Can I share this post and its comments on Facebook?

Birches said...

I don't post a lot of political stuff on fb, but I will occasionally push back on deranged posts in a nice way. Just yesterday a friend posted scripture and then said trump was the opposite of a Christian and any real Christian could not support him in good faith. And if you did, she didn't want to hear about it. So dumb.

My spouse can have fairly reasonable discussions on fb, but I have found that most women are not interested in discussion, they are only interested in virtue signaling. I have pushed back delicately with some friends only to find out they are carrying a grudge about it. So dumb.

tim maguire said...

I left Facebook about two months before the election because I was starting to judge my friends for their inability to shut up about their stupid politics. Of all the hundreds of political posts, I can easily count on one hand the number that weren't stupid, ignorant, childish, or needlessly vicious. Sadly many were all those things at once.

I found I didn't miss it in the slightest and haven't gone back, not because I'm avoiding it, but because I rarely think of it.

tim maguire said...

Saw a tweet yesterday that said something like "Twitter shows you a world where strangers are assholes for no reason. Facebook shows you the same world, except it's your friends and family."

Rosa Marie Yoder said...

I'm not alone?
I'm not alone!
The FB account was deactivated about 10 days ago and the new addiction is Althouse and the comments. Healthy move, wouldn't you say?

Dave in Tucson said...

All this needs is the right headline to be an Onion article. Something like:

> Lefty Facebook user suddenly realizes the horror of politicization of everyday life the exact moment things stopped going her way.

Swede said...

Had somebody on Facebook on the night of the election telling everybody how they needed to unite behind Hillary, for the good of the country, and to get used to saying "Madame President".

By midnight he was raving about the end of democracy and how resistance was the only option.

And the crazy really hasn't stopped since then.

Francisco D said...

If you want to argue about politics why not use this site or similar others? It's express purpose is to share thoughts and ideas rather than share pictures, organize events, etc. That seems to be what Facebook is for.

Another advantage to this site (and similar others) is that you get to see how deranged leftist tools like Inga (and her many real or imagined incarnations) are. As a bonus, there is always the "lifelong Republican" Chuck. He is good for laughs, although it scares me when he sounds rational and I agree with him.

MadisonMan said...

Like the author, I use Facebook to keep up with High School friends, and with family. There are probably 4 who are incessantly posting about Trump; two high school friends really feed off each other Re: All Things Trump.

My cousin's wife is forever anti-Trumping, and now my sister has started.

The plusses still outweigh the negatives, IMO -- it's easy to scroll past.

I'd sell any stock I owned in it though.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's probably not worth begging the people of Facebook to talk about other things than Trump.

What a shame. The people actually care about their country!

Oh well. You can always take up Mah Jong.

Trump certainly is the most exciting character to appear in the world in my entire lifetime.

He's an exhausting exercise in perpetual disaster. You really are one hell of a German nihilist, Major Kong.

bgates said...

The people actually care about their country!

Obvi. Look who we just elected.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That's true, bgates. The minority elected someone too reckless to put his country above himself.

Zach said...

It's been really bad the last couple of weeks.

I don't even mind if people post about their own political experiences and insights -- my feed was crammed with pictures of the women's march. That's how they spent their day, that's what they felt like sharing, so I don't mind it appearing in my feed.

But acting like an unpaid shill for one political party or another has got to stop. I want to be friends with people without being pressured to agree with everything they believe.

Kirk Parker said...

John Henry,

"Facebook's EULA at one time, don't know if it still does, had a clause that allowed them to use anythign they found on a member's computer for any purpose. "

For a tech-savvy, detail-oriented guy, this is a surprisingly clueless take on things.


(1) I highly doubt FB's legal team allowed them to assert any such thing, but even if they did...

(2) The design of every web browser I've ever heard of does NOT give a remote site you connect to the ability to scan your local drive... at all.

So what FB's EULA really did give them, in de facto and probably also de jure terms, was the right to use anything you posted or uploaded tdo FB for marketing purposes. That may or may not be good, but it's a far cry from them being able to scan your hard drive and find client photos.

Njall said...

Funny this is a topic, I quit FB about a week ago, for many of the reasons cited. I was an army brat as a child, also in the Navy for six years, and also have a far-flung family, so I treasure seeing the lives of people that 50 years ago would have only been a memory for me (unless I had wanted to hire a private detective or something).

I disdain the political rants for all the reasons listed. One thing that particularly irks me is that, I have come to see the left-right divide as an existential crisis, so when I see my sweet aunt's shallow political posts, for example, I want to respond, I think it my philosophical duty to respond - but I don't want to damage my relationship with my aunt.

If you post like that, you should be able to take the heat, but leftists can't. I have had a friend never speak to me again after a political discussion - and I was quite calm and civil. I could almost see the realization awakening in him that I, his long time friend, was actually a crypto-fascist.

My lessons learned from this are twofold: 1) I realize that "friendship" for leftists is very volatile if you violate the political test, and 2) I need to come out of the closet sooner so that people can be fully informed and not be my friend if my beliefs are such an obstacle. And may the door smack them soundly on the ass on the way out.

I haven't resolved the issue with my sweet aunt, and so I quit FB so I wouldn't have to see it.

Van Wallach said...

Employers could turbocharge productivity by blocking Facebook. The economy would soar. The next step would be to block Internet access except for sites required by work activities. If you wanna look, use your smartphone.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think Reddit is also suffering from Trump exposure.

Every day they front 3 or 4 negative Trump stories.

I don't go there for that.

RichardJohnson said...

I have never had a Facebook account. My brother passed along to me some inquiries on his Facebook account from classmates wanting to know my whereabouts. One of those connections resulted in an ten hour conversation when I was back in my home area.


Another Facebook inquiry my brother passed on was a classmate who had moved to near where I now live. I have had some conversations with him, but as he is on the road most of the time with a band, he isn't around most of the time. This classmate posted on a Facebook account dedicated to my home area. I looked at the Facebook-home area account when I was visiting my brother last year. When I saw it, some 6 months before the election, it had hardly any political postings on it, with the exception of my classmate who now lives near me. His political postings have not increased my wanting to see him.

Unknown said...

You have to wonder why Facebook doesn't let users weed out and hide political posts. It could be as easy as hiding any post with the word Trump in it. They have ultra-extravagant algorithms to every other damn thing.