Facebook Troubles
To quit or not to quit? That’s the question we have to ask when it comes to Facebook.
No doubt a lot more Americans are thinking about this after the news of this week.
Yep, it seems the GOP did the exact same thing the Dems did a few years ago – they used Facebook user data to help them reach voters.
- When Obama’s team did this, the media heralded it as a new milestone in how American political campaigns are run.
- When Trump’s team did this, the media heralded it as a new milestone in how social media is corrupting this country.
I think both viewpoints are correct.
While I’m not going to focus on the hypocrisy of these two opposing political party’s arguments, I will focus on the worth that Facebook has in your life.
Personally, I’ve pulled back from the platform a lot this year.
My last post on my personal page was two months ago. I only go onto Facebook once a day now: around 10 in the morning, and that’s just to go to the Big Sky Words Facebook page to post my latest blog entry.
The rest of the time I ignore that site…I don’t even get email notifications from them anymore.
Now…what’s the reason for this?
Mostly, it was that every time I got onto Facebook and scrolled down the newsfeed a bit, I’d find myself getting angry.
It was all the posts I was seeing – most of them political – and the fact that I rarely agreed with any of them.
Then I’d want to argue, leaving comments that always seemed to ruffle feathers.
So two months ago I decided to just stop looking at Facebook entirely.
I’ve taken the same stance with Twitter – I just go in once in the morning, share my latest blog post, and then I get the hell out of there.
I don’t use Instagram, so that’s it for me. Personally, I think my life has become less stressful over the past two months, and a big part of that is not being on social media.
Do others feel the same?
I think so.
Late last year, Reader’s Digest had an article up called Why I Quite Facebook and Instragram – and I’m Never Going Back.
Reasons this woman gives are that she now procrastinates less; she’s not worried about what her friends are doing all the time; and the invites she gets are now much more sincere.
Besides those reasons, why know that Facebook looks at your private messages to figure out more on your interests and they allow private companies to track you online.
Many of the problems come about through our own behavior, however. We overshare everything; we put private, family-style posts up for everyone to see and comment on; and we get information overload while we waste hours each day on things we don’t even remember a day or two later.
I didn’t quit Facebook, but I stopped looking at the content on there.
I haven’t missed the site, and would like to delete my account…though that would wipe out my Big Sky Words page, too.
But who cares? I don’t think many would. I’m not sure I would.
Mostly, I feel that getting as much social media out of my life as possible will just increase the quality of my life.
I feel that more and more people are thinking this way.
Senate District 49
I read yesterday that we lost a candidate in SD 49 here in Missoula.
Seems the Libertarian wasn’t able to do the necessary, post-filing paperwork.
So now it’s a three-way race: A Democrat, a Republican, and a Green.
Wow, this latest development really hurts the Dem! Before, the Libertarian might have taken as much as 2% to 3% from the Republican, perhaps 200 to 300 votes.
Now Libertarians – and disaffected Republicans and dissatisfied Dems – might go to the Green Party candidate…if they don’t just stay home.
While before the Libertarian dropped out the Green might have gotten the same 2% to 3%, now they might get 4% to 5% of the vote in that race.
This is a huge development.
And I’m not sure either major Party candidate is capitalizing on it!
For instance, Republican Chase Reynolds doesn’t even have a candidate website or a candidate Facebook page up yet. He’s missed two huge windows of opportunity already – the first being right after he announced, and the second after the press attention that came with filing day.
Both would have been good times to have a cookie-cutter candidate site up, one that has a donation button so people can give you money.
At this point I can’t even find a physical mailing address so I can send him a check.
I really have to shake my head at this. What a slow start out of the gate, and one that could lead to some real stumbles further down the track!
Chase has cost himself hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars…and simply because he doesn’t know what to do and doesn’t have anyone around him that knows what to do.
Very sad.
When it comes to Democrat Diane Sands, it’s hard to measure what she’s doing.
On Facebook, her ‘Senator’ page has 130 likes and posts that are days and days apart.
Her ‘For Missoula’ page has 496 likes and hasn’t seen a post since 2015.
She has no website, and hence no Act Blue donation button. It’ll be interesting to see her campaign finance report on May 6. Where’s her money going to come from?
What I’m seeing here is a very slow start for what should be a hot race. There have been no ‘introductory’ newspaper letters for these two, nor have there been any kinds of social media posts trying to inform Missoulians about them, and that they’re running.
When I see things like this, I get encouraged.
This environment is a great one for getting out there and informing people about the Green Party, one that cares about people and not just corporations like the Dems and GOP do.
Chase might be able to squeak by in this race, simply because he has someone out there like me, doing some work to campaign.
Diane has her work cut out for her, and I’m not sure she’ll be able to pull this off without a lot of money and a lot of support. So far I see signs of neither.
