Facebook has become AOL
A few days ago, I was thinking about what Facebook has become, and in reflection, it's basically become AOL. If you're familiar with the early days of the Internet, AOL was pretty much the Internet that everyone used. It was everything then, that Facebook is becoming now. That's kind of ironic that we've just made a giant circle through time back to AOL. Then this morning I read Facebook has changed its name to Meta aka Metaverse and has a new logo that looks like a twisted doughnut, and it's appropriate, because that's pretty much what Facebook is now, a full figure-eight loop back to the AOL of the past.
At the beginning of 2021, I left Facebook around May. I found myself feeling anxious, stressed and unsettled using it. This was nothing new, I'd felt that way for many years using Facebook, and I wanted something different for my life, something better, something Facebook had no control over or influence in.
I imagine I am not the only one Facebook had been censoring for talking about things my family members and I had always discussed in it's wannabe "Metaverse". My family members were frustrated with Facebook and so were my friends. However, unlike them, I made a decision that I do not regret and I left.
Since abandoning Facebook, all of the anxiousness, stress and unsettlement left pretty quick and hasn't returned since. That's something multiple trips to the doctor couldn't resolve.
It hasn't been easy at times, I still feel drawn to it, like wanting to reconnect with a bad relationship that ended. Every time I become tempted now, I search the internet for the latest news on Facebook and I immediately regain my sanity and empowerment to keep pushing forward.
One of the main things that keep me considering going back to Facebook (aka Meta) is that every search engine and SEO tools like Alexa, Google, and others place an extremely high value on having backlinks, shares and connections from a website to Facebook.
When I left Facebook's online hades, I gave up a Facebook page related to my YouTube channel, and took an immediate hit with YouTube's algorithm in terms of AdSense, views, subscriptions and revenue.
Now five months later, my video views dropped 75%, which means my revenue dropped 75%. My content didn't change, YouTube's algorithms, and Google's Search simply didn't place as high of value on the videos because of the loss of SEO and Backlinks from Facebook.
It was worth it then, it's still worth it now, despite the losses. I spent way to much time over seven years seeing doctors every month with things they were unable to cure or figure out. In only five months after leaving Facebook I am healthier than I've been since 2014 and that is amazing.
My outlook is better, my relationships are better, despite my world being smaller.
I'll be honest, I was never a fan of the original AOL (American Online) universe for similar reasons. AOL tried to create its own internalized world, very similar to what Facebook (now Metaverse) has become. The only thing Facebook lacks, that AOL offered is free e-mail accounts, and a membership fee.
But unlike AOL in which your internet service was part of AOL and a ton cheaper, Facebook is more insidious. Its like a digital leach that you can't easily remove, following you everywhere you go and everything you do, whether you're actively using it or not. It might as well be the beginning of the MATRIX, because it's so connected to everything, that it collects information on pretty much everything you do online with a computer or smart device, then it sells it. You are it's product. Like the Matrix movies, you sit in front of it for hours consumed with pointless garbage, and when you take a break and look around the room your in, it feels almost like you've entered a 3D world, aka reality.
I think I got off Facebook right in the nick of time. It's become an evil entity of propaganda, promoting social justice issues and its own political agendas. I found myself censored over and over again, and maybe even worse was seeing my family members posts with giant "Fake News according to our independent Fact Checkers". That killed it for me. The one positive thing I previously liked about Facebook before it went commercial and began engaging in manipulation of the elections, was that it was a relatively open platform. There were no manipulated news feeds to force things Facebook (Meta) wanted to show me, I could see all my friends and families posts in my news feed, there was no Black Lives Matter, Register To Vote, Climate Change tabs in my face, no so called fact checkers who only censor specific content Facebook's leadership didn't like. I was able to be a passively quiet conservative Christian and politics were never part of my discussions. But this current version of Facebook, its bogus fact checkers, showing me political ideologies I wasn't interested in, and then censoring and banning public representatives I was interested in, including pastors, created a socially hostile environment. It's become full of chaos, confusion, everyday friends and family complaining about being censored and harrassed by Facebook. It's became the virtual reflection of the riots, looting and violence that we were seeing in the streets from the socialist politicians and "progressive" movement.
I and my family had never imposed our values or dissatisfactions on anyone else, and having someone else impose theirs on me, especially at a corporate level which has influence over the information that billions of people ingest, simply has no good word to describe it. Maybe it's what the Jews experienced in Germany, or the Japanese in US Internment camps? I don't know. It's just to much power for anyone to have over me and those I care about.
With any luck, Facebook will go the way of MySpace and AOL pretty soon. Hopefully, something less toxic will come along, where friends and family can connect again, without being manipulated, with posts viewable by all my friends and family. Maybe, we'll all just wake up and start adulting in real life, go hiking, swimming, cycling, sitting on the porch. Maybe...