An artist friend, whose work and being I very much admire, announced that she was leaving Facebook. We later found out that unkind comments were behind her urge to leave the platform. I periodically run into jerks on Facebook too. Aside from wanting to kick the scumbags in the proverbial kneecaps, or perhaps a little bit higher, my revenge is often siphoned into writing scathing blogposts about the situation.
I was saddened to learn of her experience because I enjoy seeing her artwork and I enjoy her commentary. It made me think about the role of Facebook in my life. So much depends upon… a right attitude to commentary. If I do run into nasty commentators, I usually gain satisfaction by leaving a pithy comment, and if they persist, then deleting all my comments, and erase myself from the particular site, leaving a grim archaeology of their negative comments behind, stet. There are a lot of loonies out there in Facebooklandia, for sure.
I used to worry about Facebook addiction, but then the pandemic came along, and I realized that social media was not necessarily an addiction, but also a lifeline for me to keep my sanity and to be able to interact with a wide swath of people I have known throughout my crazy myriad walks of life, bringing them all under one roof, so to speak, and also to meet many like-minded new friends. The best bonus of all.
Because of Facebook, I now know many passing acquaintances on a more intimate level, despite the physical distance between us. Some folks whom I’ve never met, I could count among my closest friends. I’ve met many Facebook friends later in person. So many kindnesses. One time I needed a place to stay for the Highland Games and a Facebook friend offered her floor for the weekend. Getting to know her in person was delightful, but it was facilitated by Facebook.
When I decided to join Facebook back in 2009, I vowed that I would use it as a tool, and to not be sucked into the shallow world of senseless trending inanities. I primarily use social media as a stimulus, and a platform for my writing, art and photographs. The people I befriend are primarily creative colleagues, so Facebook offers me an opportunity to keep up on their dailiness as well as their creative processes.There’s a certain comfort in knowing that an artist acquaintance is going through similar things as you. Life as we know it. One way or another, we are all in this together.
I use Facebook as a tool to learn new ideas, to expand my reading repertoire (before the introduction of those inane sponsored posts), get ideas for new artwork, and to also write new blog posts. Heh. The Facebook groups I belong to tend to be science and nature groups, so I also use Facebook as an online learning tool for geology, plant and bird identification. I had to give up the bug group. It was just too squeamy for me.
I think the secret is to make Facebook work for you, and not to be a slave to it. I mourn the loss of those who have permanently left Facebook, like UC Berkeley classmate, the brilliant engineer and musician Chris Devine, but I understand their motivation. And then, there are all the ones that we’ve lost. And their Facebook pages become a perpetual memorial to their memory. Norton Buffalo, Howard McCord, and others.
There is so much trivia in the shallow end of the wading pool. I, for one, am glad that my artist friend has returned to the Facebook fold after a hiatus, because I so enjoy her posts and I love seeing her artwork. It changes my daily outlook for the better. For me, seeing her art process is a golden bonus.
Maybe the right attitude is to ask not what you can do for Facebook algorithms, but what Facebook algorithms can do for you… Perhaps, in my case, the best revenge of all is the excuse to write about it, warts and all.
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