The term “Facebook Community” is an oxymoron. While the social media giant may connect us on the surface, Facebook knowingly “exploits the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” says a recent Wall Street Journal study.
Sure, Zuckerberg puts us in the same room as hundreds of our friends, but then squanders that opportunity by highlighting our differences and fostering an undeniable “us / them” polemic, at a time on our planet when recognizing our commonality is what we need most.
This week, President Trump tweeted misinformation regarding the efficacy–and legality–of mail-in voting, ignoring decades of data showing the opposite is true.
After Twitter marked the tweet as misleading, Facebook’s Zuckerberg quickly announced that “social networks should not fact-check political speech.” This sounds to me like an open invitation for politicians to jack up their Facebook ad spend, and circulate whatever message is conducive to their election regardless of its veracity.
The end result? Filling our feeds (and consequently our minds) with yet more misinformation.
With this single statement, Mark Zuckerberg has planted his feet firmly on the opposite side of democracy and on the wrong side of history.
On Facebook, we don’t feel as if we’re a part of any sort of team. There is no ‘shared vector’ on which we’re progressing, let alone together evolving. Our feeds, which may appear positive and uplifting on the surface, are in reality prodding us deeper and deeper into personal isolation and collective chaos.
I’m choosing not to participate in Facebook anymore. In the next few days, I’ll be deleting both my personal and artist profiles from the platform. I’m more interested than ever in connecting with friends and family through traditional email and phone calls / video chats. If you don’t hear from me, feel free to reach out!
-WS
