And I've Quit Facebook Again

So, I started this blog when I took a break from Facebook during 2020 as a way to continue to perform my life in front of an audience while maintaining some distance from that platform. I have issues with Facebook. I obviously also have some issues that revolve around the public performance of my life, as well. That introspection is ongoing.

The jumping-off point for me was a post about my son being vaccinated. He was brave when getting his first shot and I wanted to celebrate that, forgetting that trusting my doctor and trusting modern medical science have become rather controversial stances over the past couple of decades. Anti-vaccination folk came out to respond, in the hopes that their words would encourage others to question the veracity of vaccinating their children.

Now, I don’t mind being challenged on things. I remained respectful in my response to those comments. But there was something very… off. Not just about the exchange, but in how I approached the exchange. The fact that a post about my son’s bravery became a soapbox for someone with an opposing viewpoint from my own irked me. The fact that the only participants in that conversation (including a friend who was pointing out how shitty it was to turn the post into a soapbox) were all against vaccination irked me. And the fact that I was tempering my responses made me really upset.

See, I have strong opinions about vaccination. I have strong opinions about a lot of things. In the past few years, however, I’ve been keeping those opinions closer to my chest. In an effort to remain respectful in an environment where polarized arguments are becoming the norm and echo chambers abound, I felt my best course of action was to stay in my lane and keep quiet. I don’t want to contribute to an echo chamber, but I also don’t want to provide a platform for people who are (if I may be so blunt) just fucking wrong to a degree that I feel their choices are actively, selfishly, stupidly harmful to the communities in which we live.

This is not to say that I think those people are stupid. Far from it. I don’t befriend stupid people, as a general rule. But looking at a platform like Facebook, it’s easy to see how intelligent people can be horrifically misinformed. Media literacy and intelligence are not the same, and platforms like Facebook actively feed on those who are blind to the impact that social media is having on them. The rampant misinformation, outright lies, politicizing of non-partisan issues… I can’t continue to contribute to a platform that is actively encouraging that sort of behavior.

I’m not a moderate and I never have been. I’m a bleeding-heart socialist. I believe in science. I don’t put stock in conspiracy theories. I trust that our doctors and nurses and even the government largely have our best interests at heart (though there is admittedly a lot of corruption and division in those communities).

Put your fucking mask on. Go get vaccinated like a reasonable, rational adult. Get your kids vaccinated because you care about them. And for the love of every god for whom I have a name, let’s find a better way to use the most important communication tool humanity has ever constructed.