Well I left after the vote because it was making me depressed and miserable, came back on briefly, only to leave again because Brexit is still ongoing and facebook somehow has the ability to ball it all up into your face.
Also, Brexit for me means preparing for redundancy, learning other languages in case of having to leave the country to find work, and generally being poorer, which leaves less time for facebook, going out and events.
On the plus side, I am no longer suicidal!
Also, LJ, is so much nicer. Very quiet, but more civilized.
I am so glad to hear that you are not suicidal anymore.
My reasons are similar to yours, but in the end I simply felt that my presence on facebook ended up not delivering anything truly beneficial either for myself or for the people reading my facebook.
I am not entirely sure how much I will end up writing on LJ. It is a platform I feel more comfortable with and that hasn't quite the drawbacks Facebook has, but I nowadays feel only inclined to use it if I feel I haves something worthwhile to say.
Btw, after reading about your adventures in duolingo, I've started to learn Dutch. May come in handy at some point...
Dutch is a great idea, and with your German/English knowledge you should be able to pick it up quickly. Coming off facebook and moving onto Duolingo has worked well for me. Instead of wasting time on facebook getting depressed and upset, I spend the time learning on Duolingo. Much more constructive!
I need to properly gather up everyone's emails, I'd like to invite chums round once I'm not feeling so bloody skint, and I'd rather avoid facebook if I can.
Here or there, it's good to be able to hear what you have to say, even if it sometimes is rather bleak -but so are some aspects of the world we find ourselves in.
Thank you. To be honest, I am not entirely sure yet how my future "voice" on the net will develop, but I feel LJ would be a more appropriate platform.
People mostly expect fluff and little personal anecdotes on Facebook - all of which essentially serve to affirm your own position in the universes of others. I felt that ultimately I wasn't willing and able to deliver this anymore, simply because I feel that the person I need to be to face an uncertain future may not have an awful lot in common with the identity people who read my Facebook would associate with me.
OTOH, I don't want to make people miserable so it would not be fair to "bait and switch" people into having to live with an altogether less reassuringly dainty me.
I'm a coward, I s'pose, in that, for instance yesterday I didn't reply to the quite a few comments celebrating the death of the 'brutal dictator' (as Trump and the rest describe him.. and Trump and the rest are honourable men...) Fidel Castro (who did do horrible things ini the beginning, btw, but if we are counting blood spilled Tony Blair or any American president would be responsible for many, many more deaths. The evil men do lives after them...
There are few Brexit supporters in my FB friend list; some I have unfollowed but not taken out as they are, in my estimation, just misguided but good people. But some replies I and comments I see of friends of friends make me ... I don't know, maybe glad of my echo chamber, in a way -if it is not letting me see the full horror of the world, maybe I'm not ready to face the full horror of the world.
I suppose most people (and that includes me) on FB who have a little bit of social awareness have been holding back on making comments or posts about controversial subjects at some point.
Unfortunately, as communities are wont to be, current events have not only emboldened the people who have naturally staunchly "conservative" views, but the usually pretty silent non-political majority are just as reluctant now to oppose the new "majority viewpoints" as they were reluctant in vigorously defending the previous status quo.
In a way the mood and debate has very much moved away from me and I do not want to move with it. However I am neither enough of a masochist to feign being apolitical under those conditions nor enough of a sadist to essentially turn my facebook into something which invariably would end up mostly making people feel bad about themselves.
Incidentally though, even my silent slinking away from fb seems to have already been interpreted as some kind of declaration of war by somebody :-(
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Also, Brexit for me means preparing for redundancy, learning other languages in case of having to leave the country to find work, and generally being poorer, which leaves less time for facebook, going out and events.
On the plus side, I am no longer suicidal!
Also, LJ, is so much nicer. Very quiet, but more civilized.
Reply
My reasons are similar to yours, but in the end I simply felt that my presence on facebook ended up not delivering anything truly beneficial either for myself or for the people reading my facebook.
I am not entirely sure how much I will end up writing on LJ. It is a platform I feel more comfortable with and that hasn't quite the drawbacks Facebook has, but I nowadays feel only inclined to use it if I feel I haves something worthwhile to say.
Btw, after reading about your adventures in duolingo, I've started to learn Dutch. May come in handy at some point...
Reply
Coming off facebook and moving onto Duolingo has worked well for me. Instead of wasting time on facebook getting depressed and upset, I spend the time learning on Duolingo. Much more constructive!
I'm here if you want to connect up.
I need to properly gather up everyone's emails, I'd like to invite chums round once I'm not feeling so bloody skint, and I'd rather avoid facebook if I can.
Reply
Hear, hear. It is!
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Reply
People mostly expect fluff and little personal anecdotes on Facebook - all of which essentially serve to affirm your own position in the universes of others. I felt that ultimately I wasn't willing and able to deliver this anymore, simply because I feel that the person I need to be to face an uncertain future may not have an awful lot in common with the identity people who read my Facebook would associate with me.
OTOH, I don't want to make people miserable so it would not be fair to "bait and switch" people into having to live with an altogether less reassuringly dainty me.
Reply
There are few Brexit supporters in my FB friend list; some I have unfollowed but not taken out as they are, in my estimation, just misguided but good people. But some replies I and comments I see of friends of friends make me ... I don't know, maybe glad of my echo chamber, in a way -if it is not letting me see the full horror of the world, maybe I'm not ready to face the full horror of the world.
Reply
Unfortunately, as communities are wont to be, current events have not only emboldened the people who have naturally staunchly "conservative" views, but the usually pretty silent non-political majority are just as reluctant now to oppose the new "majority viewpoints" as they were reluctant in vigorously defending the previous status quo.
In a way the mood and debate has very much moved away from me and I do not want to move with it. However I am neither enough of a masochist to feign being apolitical under those conditions nor enough of a sadist to essentially turn my facebook into something which invariably would end up mostly making people feel bad about themselves.
Incidentally though, even my silent slinking away from fb seems to have already been interpreted as some kind of declaration of war by somebody :-(
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