In the Dark

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, but last week I decided to end my dealings with Meta. The usefulness of Facebook in particular has been declining rapidly owing to the proliferation of adverts and far-right propaganda that I spent more time blocking than reading, and it’s very difficult to find anything from your actual friends in among the noise. In other words, Facebook has well and truly turned to shit. The decision by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ditch all moderation at Meta and align himself with America’s Felon-in-Chief was the last straw. I just don’t want to engage with the people Meta wants me to engage with. Life’s too short.

A while ago I deleted my Instagram and Threads accounts and today, having downloaded all my data, I completed the process by deleting my personal account on Facebook, along with the page I had set up to post from this blog, and the page for the Open Journal of Astrophysics. My personal account on Facebook has existed since 2007 so there was quite a lot to download, but it’s all done now and all these accounts have gone. I also uninstalled WhatsApp.

The good news is that my BlueSky account now has over 5.7K follows, heading towards the number i used to have on Twitter before I deleted that account. The level of engagement there is good, and it’s a far friendlier environment than Xitter. I also have an account on Mastodon where I have over 1200 followers and similarly good engagement. 

I’m also on LinkedIn, by the way. Posts from here go there automatically too. I don’t log on very often but I am frequently amused by the alternative jobs it suggests for me. Last week it recommend I try a new career as a kitchen porter.

This entry was posted on January 25, 2025 at 10:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.