It Might Be Time To Ditch Facebook

in #life7 years ago

"Colourful" rant incoming, so be warned.

I am thinking it is almost time to ditch facebook.

I tire of the never-ending sea of ignorance and hate that I see as I scroll through my newsfeed. I am sick to fucking death of the blatantly fake memes and unresearched falsehoods that people just look at and click "share" without doing any kind of sourcing. Sure, that happens all over, but it seems to be at its peak of infestation on Facebook.

Living in the heart of oil country in Canada, it's hard to avoid that kind of venomous stance. The far-right mentality is strong out here. "Fuck everybody but our oil and oil money," is one way I have seen it paraphrased. It may not be entirely accurate, but there are more that seem to adopt that stance than not, it seems. And it's tiresome to watch.

Don't get me wrong, I have some fiscally right-leaning views, but as the father of an openly gay daughter and brother to an openly gay sister, I tend to lean a bit more to the left on the social levels.

A girl I know shared some picture that was originally meant to stir the pot and spread hatred at immigrants. I asked for a source on it, knowing full well that it was untrue and debunked, in an effort to hopefully prod her to do a little fact-checking. This turned into a family friend of hers going full idiot mode in an effort to defend the image, which I had provided sources to, proving it was fake. She then shifted gears into defending the idea behind the hate spam.

It was enough. I had reached my fill. I can't just sit quietly while blind ignorance and bigotry are thrown around. I don't want or need to live in an echo chamber, but I sure as hell don't feel the need to drown in a neverending news feed of hate.

I'm gonna take a few days away from it, run my business pages from a blank account that I have had as an admin for a couple years, and ponder my options.

/end rant