Spoiler:  There isn't much about photography in this post.  But there is some, and that will be enough for today.

So here it is, the first day of my post Facebook experiment.  I feel like I'm going along with the gang from Easy Rider to Find America.

So why did I do it?  It's a time suck.  Once you start poking around in there, it's one thing after another to keep you looking.  From that aspect, it's a marketing/advertising gold mine.

But that's where the true nature of the beast starts to reveal itself.  What are they showing you, trying to sell you?  Or sell you on?  In recent weeks this has become a fundamental problem for me.  The Facebook machine keeps suggesting things to me that I disagree with and find borderline offensive.  So what did I do?  Use the built in mechanism to hide and/or report the things I want gone.  But they keep coming back like a zombie energizer bunny.  I'm vastly outnumbered, so it is time to break contact, continue mission.  (some of you may actually get that)

An example:  I will never be on board with the agenda of Giffords and Kelly.  I will save the harshest language for when you actually talk to me sometime.  But if I had a chance to meet them, I would suggest they eat a bowl of ****s.  For starters.  But they have paid the facebook enough money to just. keep. throwing. that. stuff. at. me.

So I will take the path that leads away from that and them.

But while I'm at it, there is always the derp to keep things lively.  I know nearly everyone on my "friends" list and enjoy being around them in person.  But nearly all of them use a computer screen as an invisibility cloak.  They will type things into that little box that I doubt they would ever say out loud to another person.

And there is the incessant blather about current events.  I have concluded that watching it scroll by is like watching to people argue that the other person is the issue.  Not argue about the actual issue.  That perhaps the other is wrong just for existing and having a different viewpoint.  So if you are too busy pointing and laughing at your fellow man, when will you find time to right the injustice you claim to see everywhere?

Again, I will take the path that leads away from that and them.

And that, boys and girls, is how I came to be facebook free.  At this point in my existence, I question the benefit of putting too much effort into it.  In the short term, I just do not see any rewards for it.

Which will give me time to go back to my photographic roots and maybe even find America, which I am pretty certain isn't just a facebook page.

If you see me out there, say hello and chat for a minute.  That is how we used to do it.

Siochán leat, S.E.G.