I was never enthusiastic about Facebook to begin with, so there’s no sense of regret now that I’m exiting the platform. My text-file with site passwords is 978 lines long, so Facebook will join the ranks of all other forums and apps I’ve used over the years.
I’ve been online for 25 years by now, and when Facebook came along it was a platform much like another – a “find my classmates” with some added functions. So you get suggestions, you add people to it, and then you wake up one day and suddenly there are tons of people who have never known the Internet to be anything but websites like these. And even thought Facebook wasn’t all that innovative or new, it was at the right place at the right time to create a critical mass of users which has allowed it to ensconce itself in our browsers and cellphones – as well as in the public mind.
It’s become more difficult to get out since there’s no one service which can offer the same functions as Facebook, but out I’m going – if for no other reason than to rediscover what the web can still become beyond the walled gardens of the big five corporations. (Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & Amazon).
I remember when Facebook announced that they were allowing personalized sub-domains, and I set the alarm to wake me at the hour so that I could register facebook.com/mateusz – much like having a low user number on Slashdot used to mean something, I figured that having my own url on Facebook would allow me to control the set and setting of my home on the platform. Over the years it’s become abundantly clear that it’s a dysfunctional home, and it’s time to vacate.
Eight years ago I was ruminating on what had become of Hotline & KDX, and if I can say it myself I quite like what I wrote (You can read the post here) so allow me a self-quote:
For a time I nourished the idea that I should be logged in somewhere at all times. By running my own server, I could be online and present at a place where others could see me, and often I would log in to servers or join an IRC channel just to be somewhere while I slept. Even though you are not conscious of your surroundings when you sleep, you still exist; And it felt important to think of myself as existing online, not only to me, but as a proof of the possibilities that the net embodied.
I’ve never changed my password to Facebook over the years. Ever since I signed up it was NotReallyInteresting. It’s time to do good on the flippancy with which I set up that password, and quit.