There was a (very short) golden era when I enjoyed Facebook and it added real value to my life. You could keep in touch with the goings-on of people you cared about. Interesting thoughts and content with value was shared.

What happened?

1. Notifications for everything – the little red notification endorphin kicker is used for crap not worthy of our attention.

2. Feed is filled with content you didn’t want and not even from your friends (not just ads but suggested content)

3. As circles have expanded from, just College classmates, to friends, to family, to coworkers, neighbors, etc. The amount of personal information and with substance a sane person will share has had an inverse relationship to that expanding circle.

4. Their algorithm for what gets floated to the top of your feed is broken and rewarding the wrong content production and not truly about what you want to consume but targeting base instincts (food verse cocaine)

At some point most thoughtful people tire of being treated like a hamster in a cage by the platform and abandon or remove from devices.

I struggled with having Facebook on my phone. I do have a legitimate and regular business use for it but I found myself mindlessly opening it up and wasting time with stuff that added zero value to my life.

I tried a few strategies for keeping it on my phone but the pull was too strong. I’ve removed it entirely and just visit in my browser a few times a week and go directly to my business-use-cases or the few rare spots that have content that is edifying, encouraging, and helpful.

Over the years the platform has morphed and it isn’t hard to image a 2030 where it has faded into disuse.