Bye for Now, Facebook

Yesterday, I did something I needed to even though I didn't want to. I announced on Facebook that I'm "taking an indefinite leave of absence from posting to or commenting on [the platform] while I work on some projects I've been neglecting including bettering myself and launching one or more podcasts." And now I need to honor that pledge.

It won't be easy. I love participating on Facebook because it's about the only social interaction I have these days. Sharing and discussing articles I've read; reading and commenting on articles, opinions, or personal matters others have shared or comments they've made; and just receiving "likes" for things I've shared or comments I've made feels good. I'm going to miss it.

But Facebook has diverted me from so many things I need to do to fulfill myself more deeply and, perhaps, save my marriage if it can be saved. My participation on Facebook has also brought out some of my worst qualities in terms of how I feel about and interact with people who, for example, support Donald Trump or downplay the seriousness of Covid-19.

I hope to return to Facebook someday. But not until I have at least one podcast up and running, and not until I'm ready and able to consistently dialogue with people I disagree with on politics and other matters in a more respectful and kindly manner. And even then, I can't spend most of my day there doing what I've been doing. Much of my future activity on Facebook and other social media sites such as Twitter must revolve around sharing and discussing my podcast episodes or written pieces I've published somewhere or other.

I simply don't have enough time and cognitive bandwidth to do more if I'm going to make the most of what time I have left in this world to, in the words of a prayer I composed that I recite every night before sleeping, "do and be my very best from now on and to mindfully shine as a bright beacon of wisdom, strength, equanimity, compassion, and lovingkindness lighting the path of goodness, truth, and beauty."

China Set to Emulate Black Mirror's Nosedive Scenario?

Last night I watched a Black Mirror episode titled "Nosedive." It was about a social media-driven dystopia in which everybody is constantly being rated by everyone with whom they come in contact in physical or electronic space, and their overall rating can have profound implications for where they can work and live, what they can buy or which services they can receive, and with whom they can associate in order to maintain or boost rather than lower their rating and enjoy the rewards or suffer the consequences thereof. This turns almost everyone into approval-seeking phonies compulsively and anxiously on guard against being down-rated by anybody in any social situation.

This Orwellian nightmare scenario seemed plausible enough in the not-too-distant future, but, judging from this alarming article (the full article is behind a paywall, but be sure to check out the video), something disconcertingly like it may already be coming to China in the form of an ominously named "social credit system," and it may come here sooner than we could have ever imagined. Be concerned. Be very concerned!

Mocking the Learning Disabled

Several times, I've seen a video on Facebook making fun of a female driver who repeatedly parks with the wrong side of her vehicle facing the gas pump until she finally gets it right. On YouTube, the video is titled "Stupid woman at gas station," and many comments on both YouTube and Facebook derisively echo the YouTube title.

But I don't feel like laughing. To me, the video appears to be a textbook depiction of nonverbal learning disorder, and this is a problem with which I have a frustrating lifetime of firsthand experience. Here is the comment I posted to Facebook and YouTube about it, and I hope some people take it to head and heart:

I don't laugh at videos like this, because I empathize with the driver. Like me, she may well have NLD--nonverbal learning disability--and, consequently, great difficulty seeing in her mind's eye how to get the proper side of her vehicle to face the gas pump. And the frustration she undoubtedly feels over her mistakes coupled with anxiety that people might be watching her struggle and laughing at her might well inhibit her reasoning faculties to the extent that she keeps impulsively repeating her mistakes instead of finding some way or other of collecting herself so that she can figure out how to do what she needs to do. She could be very intelligent in other ways. And even if she's not, I wish we would have more empathy and compassion for people who struggle to do things that we are fortunate not to struggle with.