I deleted my Facebook and my Instagram

Look, you can do whatever you want. Sincerely. I cannot and will not sit here and judge how anyone else chooses to use their devices or their internet. But, for me? It was time to go.

We are experiencing "a moment"

This upcoming week has profound implications for the landscape of social media in this country. To name a few:

• Donald Trump will be inaugurated again. At the end of his last term, he was banned from multiple notable platforms. This time around, he is assuming the presidency with all of the big companies falling in line behind him. Literally. Multiple social media and technology CEOs will be in attendance on Monday.
• The owner of Twitter will have the ear of the president and the dollars to remain relevant.
• TikTok is heading for a complete shut down on Sunday, leaving close to 200 million users in the lurch.

It's hard to think of another moment with as much stuff going on in the world of social media. There is a true feeling, to me, that we are at something of an inflection point. Behind us is 20 years of figuring out what social media is, around us is the final crystallization of where the arrows always pointed, and ahead of us is an unsteady, but somewhat promising new world. It is because of the promise of that new world that I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The main drawbacks

The decision did not come easy, and even now I question if I made the right choice. I found myself wondering, for example, what it would cost to other people for me to leave. I had dozens and dozens of uploaded pictures with tags and comments that now just...disappear. (I have them all in a big trove of downloaded data, but only I can see that.) I had exchanges on my page between friends, jokes passed, memes created.

Another drawback is that there are still people who I correspond with somewhat regularly there. We'll have to take those conversations somewhere else.

If I meet someone and want to find out more about them, or want to investigate certain connections I have, I can no longer do this. I can't "facebook stalk" anymore. When hearing about someone a friend is dating, or when looking into an actor on a TV show, I can no longer go to Instagram for a glimpse of who that person is.

I lose a main avenue by which I learn about news, engage with current events, and stay involved in my community.

I lose access to Facebook marketplace. I lose access to my Instagram DMs. I lose visibility on the kinds of insane shit people put in my hometown Facebook group.

All of these are losses, some more serious than others, but I am emboldened by the ways I can replace these things.

The main plusses

The biggest main benefit for me is not that I gain back hours of time a week I might have been scrolling. The biggest benefit is that I don't have to be a part of the massive blob of attention and engagement that Facebook uses to monetize its products. If Zuck wants to go full Joe Rogan, if he thinks "censorship" is the most critical issue facing his platform right now, fine. I don't really want to be a part of that.

That being said, I hold no illusions that my departure "means" anything. The only party here that will or will not meaningfully benefit here is me. I am a grain of sand.

But there are other plusses. I don't feel a compulsion to share. I am journalling more already. I get my news from a platform that I have set up for myself (Bluesky).

The moment I really decided to do it

While listening to the Hard Fork podcast, I heard a detail about all of the changes over at Meta that really struck me. Meta will be ceasing the operation of its automated moderation service. Here's how Casey Newton put it on the pod:

What it means is, whereas before, Meta used to rely on automated systems to catch all sorts of things, not just illegal things, but also just stuff that was annoying or hurtful, stuff that was a little bit bullying, harassment. I called you a name. I called you a slur. Meta would catch that stuff in advance and maybe not show it to you. Maybe take some sort of disciplinary action against the person who sent that.

What Zuckerberg is saying here is we are not the content moderators anymore. You are, Facebook user, Instagram user. We are now enlisting you in the fight. And we’re going to leave it to you. If you see a slur on our platform, you go ahead and report that. And then maybe we’ll take a look.

This has profoundly concerning implications. As Kevin Roose continued:

...as we know, a lot of the worst stuff on Facebook happens in groups, happens in semi-private spaces with hundreds or thousands of members. And so now, I think Meta is essentially saying that it will be up to the members of those groups to report any violative content that they want to be moderated rather than having these proactive scanners going around. And you might say, what’s the big deal about that? Well, if you’re in a Stop the Steal group or a QAnon conspiracy group or a group that’s plotting an insurrection at the Capitol, which members of that group are going to be reporting each other for violating Facebook’s rules?

The two hosts then go on to talk about child safety. As Newton points out, 41 states and DC are suing Facebook for child safety related reasons. Whether it is bullying, harassment, or the distribution of child sexual abuse material, Meta is basically relying upon the very people involved in these terrible kinds of interactions to self moderate.

This is untenable for me. I find it unconscionable that Facebook, after years of allowing genocidal rhetoric, child sexual abuse material, and the incitement of violence to go poorly moderated, they are essentially throwing their hands in the air and declaring the fight over.

Now, in fairness, they have repeated that anything illegal still isn't "allowed" on Facebook. But what good is this policy if the primary method of enforcement is the people directly involved in these infractions.

Simply, these changes to content moderation will result in more violence and more death than would have otherwise occurred without them. In the past I have been able to let that slide for the benefits of using these platforms. This time around, with the cruelty of a Trump presidency around the corner, I don't think I need to make that trade-off anymore. I can get my news elsewhere, I can connect with my friends elsewhere, and I will.

I really want to stress

It's important that I again say I won't and I can't judge anyone who chooses to remain on these platforms. My beef is not with you. I will not individualize a systemic problem. My beef is with this company and their ridiculous amount of control over our lives on the micro and macro scales.

For now, you can find me on Bluesky, (alex@alexschneidman.com), and continue to stay subscribed to this newsletter to hear from me.

The landscape of social media is already changing, and the upstarts are sold on the decentralized approach of Bluesky. I believe that they already do provide a better product than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, but this will only become more true as more people come to grips with the fact the larger players suck. I truly believe the future is bright.

Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself.