My Relationship with the Feed while Unfollowing my Facebook friends.
I probably should have titled this , “The Shocking Facebook Fact That Will Blow Your Mind!!!” to get more of you here.. but Greetings people I (mostly) don’t know but at some point still appeared in my Facebook feed!
I truly believe we behave in a way that is socially accepted by our peers and our peers have a strong influence on us through social networks,So I decided to Unfollow My facebook friends especially you people that I haven’t talked to in years but I am eagered to : التبربيش و التنسنيس when it comes to you.
What I learned is this : If you unfollow me today , I can guarantee that you won’t miss important stuff because If you care you will find out anyway. I would pick up the phone and tell you .( It’s the people I don’t contact often that seems to post more. )
But here is the twist :
Facebook doesn’t want you to unfollow everyone
The issue was that Facebook repeatedly stopped me from unfollowing any more people, without warning or explanation, after an unspecified number of unfollows had been reached.
I felt like Facebook has become our abusive partner. He carved out such a seemingly important role in our life that even though we want to leave, we are scared of the consequences.
We are like the 40 year old virgins living in their mother’s basement still longing for her approval .
That mother is An algorithm . An algorithm that decides to leave your profile picture longer on the news feed because the more LIKES you get , a rush of dopamine would hit and you would feel instant momentary happiness.
I decided to remove that option as well from my profile and your news feed , Problem solved?
ياحسرة , It’s not that easy!
The current social media marketing economy is based off of achieving meaningless vanity metrics like follower count, reach, and pseudo-engagement factors like clicks, likes and shares. manipulative, attention-getting triggers, both on a personal and professional level so there is no escape from tagged photos and posts to pages you are the admin of.. IT IS CONSTANT.
And on another hand , Facebook managed to gain such a monopoly on our digital presence, so we spend hours on the feed , we can’t help but pass snarky judgments on people whose posts we think are too obnoxious, or too long or too filled with gloat.
Your Facebook News Feed creates a bubble where you can position yourself in your own boundaries. Is this too dangerous? Too easy? Too stupid? Too smart? to artsy ? too depressed..?
Is not just posting an accomplishment or a photo , it is all in the name of crafting a specific kind of persona.
And noways : “You you are your news feed”
Passing along to the other Feed.. When I traveled ,I used Instagram a lot. I don’t really post pictures, or likes, or comments. I shared stories and watched other’s stories.
My god. How addictive and useless is that shit.
Long story short: Instagram uses a very large bank of data to understand how you interact with your followers to bring the most “interesting ones” to the top of the list. Most of the time: the people you fucking have a crush on and/or you are stalking.
Remind you of the 40 year old virgin.. I know.
I am aware that as humans, we’re wired to have a bias toward negativity, I am not a stranger to that , and you can deny this every point of this or take it with a grain of salt but just know that..
This article is not about quitting the “Digital World” or doing extreme choices.
My ambitious 23 year old self will always believe that When content impacts people on a personal level and gets them talking, well, that’s how change happens .
