On Boycotting Facebook [View all]

[MineralMan]

I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and old, dispersed friends. My posts can be seen only by people I have friended. I have set all of my security and privacy settings to maintain my privacy and control what appears in my feed. Nobody can post directly on my feed, either.

I'm active in requesting that ads from right-wing political groups not appear in my feed. Everytime one does, I use Facebook tools to tell the company that I don't want to see that sort of thing. I do the same for clickbait sites. I've been doing that for a very long time, and the result is that I see very little of that any longer.

I've noticed that a lot of DUers take pride in not using Facebook, and that's fine. But, if you're not on the site, you can't flag anything on the site or request that you not see it. You have zero input into the site. Since millions and millions of people use Facebook, I doubt that the company really cares that many DUers don't use it. People who are not on Facebook are of no interest to Facebook, the company. The company doesn't care if you use it or not. It has plenty of people who do.

I have a couple of family members who frequently share crap from right wing sites on their own feeds. When I see one of those, I use the Facebook tools to block the sites that the post come from. Now, I rarely see anything like that, since those family members keep going back to sites I have blocked from appearing on my feed when they are shared.

Why don't I just unfriend those people? Because they are family, and because they play a role in caring for my 95-year-old parents. It's important that I maintain the Facebook connection, because we use Facebook Messenger to share information that is important for my parents' well-being.

So, boycott Facebook if that's your preference. But, don't tell me that I must do the same. I'm telling Facebook daily what I do and do not want to see. You're not telling Facebook anything, and Facebook doesn't care that you aren't using their website. I don't care, either, whether you use it or not. I need Facebook for the reasons described above. I use it for those reasons.

Just know that your boycott of Facebook does not affect Facebook in any way. You do not exist, as far as Facebook is concerned. You don't matter to Facebook. I use Facebook. I don't matter much to the company, either, but I do use all of its tools to let the company know what pisses me off about what shows up on my feed. Does Facebook pay any attention to that? Well, yes. I see far less of it now than I used to, and I can absolutely control what right-wingers share that might appear on my feed.

Boycott Facebook? No, thanks, but you're welcome to do so.