DEAR MR. FACEBOOK

 

I'm leaving you!  I'm sure it won't matter much to you, but I want to get the reasons off my chest. 

 

1. I have been increasingly unsatisfied with what most of my "friends" have been posting lately -- specifically all the little post-it posters, sayings, advertising, etc. instead of just sticking to chit-chat. Some of these little "post-its"  are cute, some are stupid, some funny and some downright offensive; but regardless of content I don't want to have that kind of stuff in my face when I log on. I am just not interested in what canned material my friends think I need to read.

 2. I haven't liked the meanness I found in some of my "friends" when it came to posting of their political leanings prior to the election - and the fact that those same "friends" aren't letting go of it. I am loathe to say it is primarily the Republicans and my religious friends who are being particularly nasty. The partisanship side I guess I can understand, but not the meanness exhibited along with it.  And what is in the mind of my religious friends flies against everything I read in the Good Book, beginning with "Be ye kind, one to another!" 

 

I don't want to discuss politics with my friends - and I sure don't want to read three months of diatribes both before and after the election.  I have been waiting to see if these two things would blow over or change; they have not.    I can't stop them without unfriending them; better that I remove myself from the fray. 

3. Today among my friends' postings there was one big photo of a man beating up a dog, pinning him to a fence and with his fist pulled back to hit him in the face, as well as another smaller photo I didn't want to see. This awful picture was a poster to enlist people to join PETA or SPCA or some such thing. A second one was a dreadful shot of a dead horse, which I think had something to do with the Civil War (I didn't stay around to read it.)  This was the decision-maker.

Facebook has changed so drastically from what it was when I first started with it that for me the bad has now far exceeded the limits I can tolerate.

 

It's not entirely your fault. I am growing older and honestly I am becoming a little less tolerant than I used to be. I guess maybe I really want to use my remaining time in a different milieu.  Yes, I find I am having "withdrawing symptoms" but they will pass. And I already feel that the FB time is changing to a breath of fresh air. 

 

What I will miss most of all is just seeing all my friends in one place, chatting comfortable about generalities and specifics of their lives, their families, their activities and sharing their own photos.  I will miss seeing all the pictures of NaomiHope and my other beautiful and smart grandkids, my genealogy cousins who are scattered over the U.S., and my cousins overseas.  I know I could put further limits on who and what I can see, but I can't change myself to accept what I consider the attitude of inappropriateness and meanness that I have recently seen in my daily dose of FB.  Best I leave.  

 

I have let all my family know why I am leaving Facebook and am going to trust them to make sure I get the pictures via my regular e-mail.  Good by, Facebook.  Have a good life!

 

......................................................Bobby