Why I left Facebook

As 2018 starts to draw to a close, I started to take stock of my personal life and year. It was not the worst year of my life, but it was also far from the best.

As I navel-gazed, I realized that I had spent an awful lot of time on Facebook (or so it seemed). And I asked myself "was what I got out of it worth the time I put in?"

Overall, the answer was "no". Because Facebook promises one thing, and delivers another entirely different experience.

I went on Facebook to keep in touch with friends - to share, as Facebook calls it. Those were the good parts of what I did and saw.

But Facebook "curates" too much, and advertises too much. It's goal is engagement, and not pleasure. It creates and encourages conflict and outrage, not information and community.

It was Dickensian - the best of times and the worst of times.

I'm familiar with the psychological concept of "intermittent reinforcement", which is a type of behavior reinforcement which is most successful at encouraging certain behaviors. Once I realized that the "good parts" were being made deliberately rare and that doing so served Facebook's needs more than mine, I made a decision.

So - while this is not the first time I've "quit" Facebook, I hope it is the last. Facebook just doesn't make me happy.

Time to try other things.

(FYI, I'll be posting the same content here and on MeWe- let's see if a community forms in either place.)

Songs to learn early this year

Looking forward at my singing-challenges for the early part of the year...

Vocal Revolution has 3 songs I should learn. One I have learned, one is mostly learned, the hard one is untouched. Off paper date for the completed songs are late January.

Boston Tune Party has 1 song to learn. No hard date is set. I've learned the song "well", but not perfectly.

I signed up for Mixed Harmony Brigade of New England. 12 songs in the book, 2 optional - I know 5 of the 12, some of which need brushing up. Due date is the rally in March.

So, that's a total of 16 songs. 1 done, 7 to brush up, 8 to learn. Seems like something I can accomplish.