I just deleted my Facebook account. My main beef with Facebook is that it’s a wide channel for distributing lies, untruths and misinformation. According to Pew Research, 45% of Americans get some of their news from Facebook, and 20% do so “often.” It alarms me that Facebook has just announced a new news service. I don’t trust them. News should come from a source that I can trust to be accurate, and Facebook news can’t be trusted.
I also realized, on my last couple spins through my Facebook feed, that most of what I see there isn’t worth my time. Pictures of people eating in restaurants, and their food, vacation photos, cute political sayings. Not worth my time.
Facebook has a huge amount of political and economic power, which it has no right to. As many commentators have pointed out, there has been a large shift in power from governments to corporations over the last hundred years. The reach of the big technology companies – Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook – has put them at the top of the heap in terms of corporate power. I support this by using the services provided by these companies. Facebook is the worst, and it provides services I don’t really need, so I’m glad to make this statement against Facebook by ceasing to participate.