Eight Ways to Take Back Facebook

It will do us all a world of good to take a 48-hour break from Facebook, starting roughly from sometime on Monday, December 9 through about the same time on Wednesday, December 11. It’s a way to show a little solidarity around the site’s continued commitment to intentionally post false political advertising. What you can do — even if you are not participating in the #Facebookblackout:

1. Don’t click on any advertising. Even if it’s something you can’t live without, you probably can.
2. Share only news that you have a) personally read and b) understand is from a real news organization. Some of you may not think the NY Times and Washington Post are trusted sources, but they are. Just because you don’t like what you read, doesn’t make it not true. Real newspapers in both big cities and small towns can make mistakes. What’s important is to see that they follow up with a retraction and/or correction. Journalists, proofreaders and fact checkers are human. I know. I’ve been all three.
3. Cool it with the anti-Hillary Cinton memes. She is not president and never will be. Barack Obama is no longer president either. Posting negative things about these two is just wasting Internet oxygen. As for memes about Trump…. Well, he is President and with that comes a responsibility to be so for all Americans. Degrading individual and groups of private citizens is unpresidential (at best). Try not to sink to his level. But if you must. make it funny and relevant. And don’t expect to change anyone’s mind who still supports him.
4. I’m old enough to remember Facebook when it became popular to the masses, way before the IPO. (Think 2008-ish.) Remember your early days here and what you first came to FB for: positive connection. Connection with old friends and family members. Connection with new friends and neighbors. Connection with like-minded folks from around the world over entertainment, art, health, travel and causes for the good of humanity. Let’s get back to that. Take the toxicity (especially the political toxicity) over to Twitter.
5. It’s ok to block and unfriend people who upset you. Honestly, if you wouldn’t sit with someone at lunch, if you wouldn’t invite them to a party, if you couldn’t bear to spend a holiday with them — then say goodbye (they probably won’t even know).
6. On the other hand, stop complaining about FB’s algorithm not showing you everyone’s every move. If you’re not seeing a friend in your feed, go to their page. Better yet, send them a message. You’re friends, right?
7. Which brings me to my second to last point. The people we connect with here are called Friends by the FB establishment. “To friend” and “Facebook friend” are common terms even people not on Facebook know about. If we are not here to be friends, then why are we here? Why are we interacting? Sure, in real life, we all have to deal with people we don’t like. We try to minimize the interaction and avoid it as much as possible. But FB does not have to be a place where we air grievances about how much real life can sometimes suck. It’s a free social media platform designed for you to connect with friends. Think about it.
8. Finally, Facebook is free. It was “given” to us for free by Mark Zuckerberg et al. Of course, nothing is free. FB wanted our data and we gave it, freely, uninhibited. So now us users and FB kind of “own” each other. We’re not going to put Facebook out of business, but we can “take it back” to a place that is good and safe for each one of us by unfriending people who do not act like friends, by thinking about the things we post and by sharing things that are positive and don’t provoke. We can change the narrative. Let’s try.