A Dear John Letter to Facebook

Dear Facebook,

While I recognize you have benefits, you also have many toxic qualities. This is why I didn’t partake in your platform for many years.

I want a daily connection with my family and friends, which is why you’re back in my life. Unfortunately, society has made you the most popular way to stay in touch with the people I love and I have to fall in line.

When I didn’t have you, I felt freer, blissful even. I wasn’t upset about random news or fearing I was missing out on life daily.

Despite this feeling of freedom, during this time I also missed out on invites to events, special announcements, and plenty of awesome dog memes. When someone doesn’t have you, they are off the map and forgotten about.

You’re continuously changing your privacy settings. Your “esteemed” creator Mark Zuckerburg once said to a friend when talking about your users: “They trust me, dumb fucks!”. People do trust him and they shouldn’t.

You bring out this need in people to overshare, fight online about arbitrary topics, and post opinions that weren’t asked for. Yes, it is their choice to post nonsense but your algorithm also has a part to play, doesn’t it?

“The new Facebook algorithm works by ranking all available posts that can display on a user’s newsfeed based on how likely that user will have a positive reaction.”¹

This means you are presenting posts to people to elicit a response. I know from experience that the reaction is not always a positive one.

Facebook, you are a time sucker and the main reason why I never have my phone around while I’m working. Studies that have recently been conducted have discovered that “scrolling” on your smartphone is additive. Which I’m sure your creator is well aware of.

Facebook, you are extremely creepy. You have artificial intelligence bots working like minions behind the scenes and behind our backs. These bots sort through pictures to recognize our faces through tagging. Whenever we upload a picture to our accounts, it feeds your data supply and your accuracy of recognition improves.²

This is why when I uploaded and tagged my wedding photos, you knew whose face belonged to each of my wedding party members before I even typed their names.

Not only are you creepy, but you make people feel more isolated despite them being digitally connected to everyone they know. People use you and see all of the things they are missing out on: Vacations, building a family, and new puppies, to name a few.

According to a study conducted in 2013 on a group of 82 young people, you are toxic. They were given constant access to you for two weeks. The study concluded that it only takes two weeks of using you for someone to feel unfulfilled with their life.³

Facebook, I do like some things about you. I like the animal pictures, happy statuses, and the memes my friends and family post. I am glad that you’ve given a lot of socially isolated people a connection to the world.

You’ve also helped local businesses and entrepreneurs launch their ventures into major successes. They did the work and you gave them a platform in which to showcase their brand.

But at what cost?

When someone you care about hurts you over and over, people usually get fed up and severe ties with that person.

Daily, your algorithm sets us up to be upset, depressed, angry, and overall unfulfilled. Your ultimate goal is an open door policy on everyone’s lives. An ability to know everything about us including the structures of our facial features.

When will enough, be enough?

With all due respect,

A concerned user

____________________________________________________

Sources

[1]: Ethan Kross. (August 14, 2013). Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articleid=10.1371/journal.pone.0069841

[2]: Greg Swan. (December 24, 2019). How The Facebook Algorithm Works in 2020 https://tinuiti.com/blog/paid-social/facebook-algorithm/

[3]: Jamie Condliffe. (December 19, 2017). Facebook’s AI Will Tell You When Any Picture of Your Face Gets Uploaded

https://www.technologyreview.com/f/609816/facebooks-ai-will-tell-you-when-any-picture-of-your-face-gets-uploaded/

Amy Cottreau is a freelance writer who hails from a small city in Atlantic Canada. She enjoys interacting with fellow writers, dreaming of ideas for her next article, and researching a myriad of topics. Feel free to follow her on Twitter!