Captain's Phlog                                    2020.03.11
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Re: Tomasino - The Effects of Deleting a Social Medium 

I enjoyed reading the effects that ditching Instagram from 
their phone had on Tomasino. I haven't fallen prey to much of 
that 'stuff' because I still rock a 'dumb' cell. I have had 
experiences with both Mastodon and Facebook. I have promised 
myself never to speak openly about my reasons for leaving 
Mastodon (which sounds admittedly and unnecessarily dramatic 
I'm afraid). I promise that if we ever meet in person over 
several pints of stout I would likely expound on it in hushed 
conversation were I to be coaxed.

But Facebook! Ahhhh... what is there NOT to say! :-D

I left [F] in the late summer of 2016. My Kryptonite is an 
inability to suffer The Fool - or what I judge The Fool at 
any rate. I decided that trying to hammer objectivity and 
fact checking down other peoples' throats just wasn't my 
thing. I 'left' (more on this later). I felt great. I had 
more time for actual Stuff. There were some difficulties - 
My wife and I each run a store so I pretty much needed her 
to stay UNDER the bus and manage my business page for me 
which she did. She's a saint of a woman.

At the same time I also gave up media (the non-social type). 
My nerves just couldn't take it any more. I concentrated on 
my Dunbar Group (the roughly 200 people my human brain is 
wired to actually KNOW) and went about blissfully (some 
called it ignorance but I was the one smiling). I found I 
had unimaginable amounts of extra time for actual corporeal 
projects and I do so love doing THINGS!

Fast-forward to late summer of 2019 - three years later. 
I had two projects that I was certain would benefit from a 
[F] presence. One involved my store and the other was a 
community resource I was building. I succeeded in convincing 
myself that I could use [F] 'on my terms'. What a wanker.

I went to [F] to "CREATE ACCOUNT" and Mark told me that he 
knew I'd be back and that he never really deleted my 
content. Oh? So I tried to log back in to my existing 
account (I forgot my password so I required assistance). 
After several days of hair pulling and tooth gnashing I gave 
up and tried to create a new account at which point the 
algorithm didn't believe I was me and demanded I send them a 
picture of myself.

So here I am, back on [F]. Joining "me" from the mirror 
universe (the one with the goatee) who is still here, 
invisible, waiting to log back in. Around 40 "friends" have 
found me because sending "Friend Requests" is apparently 
what The Algorithm commands. My need to use it for my store 
has waned but my other project might still bare fruit. 

When I re-joined I gave myself till April Fool's Day to see 
if I could mold my experience to meet MY needs. Well I 
can't but for now it's not worth leaving. I post no content 
on my timeline, I don't 'scroll', and I don't collect 
'friends'. It's clear The Algorithm is loosing it's shit 
trying to make me "engage" which is funny. If my community 
project doesn't pan out I might go through the motions of 
Pulling the Plug again but for now... meh.

Hey, Wake Up!!! I'm done now.