Have you heard of ‘Enshittification’? It’s a concept created by Cory Doctorow, and it’s summed up on Google as:

…the three-stage decline of online platforms: first attracting users with good service, then prioritizing business customers by degrading user experience, and finally extracting maximum value from everyone for shareholder profit, leading to unusable, value-sapped services like social media or e-commerce sites

For a couple of years now I’ve pondered this with regard to Facebook and Twitter (still think of it as Twitter…sorry!). A wee while ago I ditched Twitter because of the cess-pool it had become, and have now said farewell to Facebook.

Here’s what I posted on my way out…

Well, I’ve downloaded all my Facebook content and was surprised at how much there is! I think I’ve been on here for 15+ years, have enjoyed my time, but have finally decided to leave for the following reasons:

1. The algorithms are dire – and whilst I appreciate I can filter content the stuff I get thrown at me these days nauseates me.

2. Too much AI slop in the special interest groups I belong to.

3. Most importantly – I want to return to being a creator rather than a consumer. I’m 64 years old; I won’t live forever! I want to get back to being the creative / hobby-oriented fellow I was before social media got it’s hooks in me! My dopamine circuits are probably fried!

Trying to moderate my FB time has proven useless, so it’s cold-turkey time.

As I’ve said – blog is at https://joepritchard.me.uk Email address is

joepritchardfacebook@gmail.com

Hopefully see you ‘further down the log’ as we radio amateurs say.

And thank you all for being a big part of my life for these years. The fact that you’re on my friends list means that you mean a lot to me.

All the best, with love and hugs,

I think points 1 and 2 above are probably part of the enshittification process, and point 3 is more to do with my mental health and desire to get back to being a creator rather than a consumer of stuff. I think it’s more important now than ever that we look after ourselves, and try and bring back human creativity before the ‘dead Internet’ finally rules supreme.

Now, having got several hundred megabytes of assorted Facebook download on my hands, it’s time to write a little program to allow me to actually organise it and see what’s worth salvaging!