For years Iâve overlooked the many good reasons for leaving the social media platform. But now there is no other choice, writes Guardian col
Why I have finally quit Facebook (itâs not just about fact-checking)
This article is more than 1 year old
For years Iâve overlooked the many good reasons for leaving the social media platform. But now there is no other choice
Jaron Lanier was chief scientist of the engineering office of Internet2 back in the day, which is to say, definitely one of the godfathers of the internet. In 2018, he set out the reasons to get rid of your social media in his book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. When I read it, I shorthanded it to: âFacebook. I really should just close down my Facebook account.â There was no way back then I would have got rid of Twitter. It was where I went to complain about Brexit, and thatâs all I did. Also, seven years ago, Twitter wasnât just porn and chatbots.
Regarding Facebook, though, all Lanierâs propositions were laid out in a buffet: in politics, it creates a bias ânot towards the left or right, but downwardsâ. Any position that could be less evidenced, more stupid, would be the one that would fly.
