My Meta-festo

I can’t quite quit Meta, so here’s how I deal with it.

NEED TO REWRITE THIS TO ALSO INCLUDE LINKEDIN ...

Let’s just say I’m not a Facebook fan. The platform delivers a terrible user experience, delivering a mix of posts and ads in some completely nonsensical order that is just chaotic. The ”feed” serves only to suck you in, so as to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen and forcibly consume ads until doomsday.

Instagram and Threads are just the same. I feel sometimes like I’m the only one who remembers that Instagram used to be about photography. But those days are long gone, and with the introduction of “the feed” and stories, or reels, or whatever the fuck they’re called, it’s lost all its charm.

But for some reason, a lot of people I know are still on these platforms and continue to use them heavily. In some cases, it’s the only way to stay in touch—either with distant family members and friends, or with groups whose only presence is in this godawful wasteland. So I keep accounts there and I try to use them judiciously.

Here’s how:

I never post.
I generally (with rare exceptions) avoid the video-based Stories and Reels. My principal objection to them is their ephemeral nature. If you don’t want something to be seen for more than a few hours or days, then I simply assume you don’t want it to be widely seen.
I avoid ”liking“ or “favoriting” posts. This is not easy because by avoiding “the feed” I tend to not see posts in the first place.
The exception is in Groups, where I tend to engage (slightly) more by liking or commenting on posts.
When I do comment, I make the assumption that the comment is public and compose accordingly. This applies to everything I do online.
I don’t generally “friend” people on Facebook.
I certainly don’t bother looking at Facebook’s suggestions for “people I might know” because they’re ludicrous. It suggests people I’ve never even heard of. Stupid.
I don’t follow Pages.
I keep only minimal profile information there.

Notes

I find these rules apply pretty well to LinkedIn too, although my reasons for keeping an account on that platform are quite different.
Threads, despite also being a Meta platform, seems like an entirely different animal. The jury is still out on that one.

Updated 2023-07-10