This is a weird one, and comes from a place of emotion and vulnerability rather than my usual output. But it is on a subject that effects us all. I'll lay it all out first, then circle back to what it all means to you and me.
I've been off Facebook for months. Maybe 5-6 months.
Today, in an extremely odd set of circumstances, and in especially surreal fashion, i found out an old friend had died. I didn't find out until a month after it happened.
Had I been on Facebook, I would have known immediately because of the amount of shared friends the deceased and I had in common. He and I weren't especially close, but had a lot of shared values and shared the same profession, after a fashion. He was a fantastically charismatic man involved in producing and facilitating independent musicians shows, records, etc. I am a live audio engineer and he and I were into the same kind of music and parties. So we shared some good times and late nights. When I first moved to New Orleans, he was instrumental in helping me gain both my social and professional footing. There are a lot of things I could say about why and how he was good to me. None of that is so important as the fact that he was, period.
I found out about his passing by virtue of joining a Discord group based on Drum Machines and Synthesizers. Another member and I were discussing our time in Austin, Texas, and seeing as this member expressed an interest in the same music and scene as my now-deceased friend and I, and my buddy had recently moved to Austin, I asked if they knew him. That is how I received the news of his death.
It was incredibly surreal. In fact, perhaps the most Techno-Dystopian moment I have ever personally experienced. I still am thinking about what it means to me, but I felt compelled to write this post immediately.
The point I am getting at is this; I DON'T WANT TO BE FORCED TO PARTICIPATE IN AN AMORAL, MANIPULATIVE, AND FASCIST DRIVEN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM LIKE FACEBOOK IN ORDER TO BE CONNECTED TO MY COMMUNITY AND PEERS. Facebook and similar platforms are a great issue of our time, in terms of user data manipulation and gathering, unscrupulous selling of your data and utter invasion of your privacy. They mine you for data under the guise of providing a free service, while reaping the profits of selling your information.
I'm so tired of the only counter argument to my advocacy of Steemit and social media platforms that empower users; "All my friends are on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram" etc. I am so exhausted by it. There is no getting through to people who adopt that mindset. At least, I don't know the method. That brings me to my main point.
The time has come for us all to double down on our efforts to remove people from the grip of Fascist and Orwellian social media platforms and embrace the open and liberated future that blockchain technology can provide. I am calling on anyone that reads this, personally, to go to a friend/family member/co-worker/whatever, and talk to them about their data and how it is weaponized against them through the use of certain social media platforms. I also am calling on you to bring to their attention the power they can regain and wield by halting their use of platforms that do not empower them to control their own data.
I am not making this post to call attention to myself or my emotions. I am making it to say that I believe we are on the cusp of an information revolution, and we must do everything in our power to educate and empower our fellow human beings.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Kelly Ray Townsend aka Warmcracklesound