Born into upper caste Hindu straight cis male confidence, I — like presumably most others of the ilk — felt entitled to have my opinions expressed and amplified. I took to Facebook like a cult member to their charismatic leader. I raved and I ranted, and I waved my woke flag for all to see. I started off with righteous anger, but blind to my privilege. While I wasn’t being egregiously exclusionary, I wasn’t being deliberately inclusive either. It soon (ok, 10+ years in) dawned on me that I needed to get off Facebook as a platform for a few obvious reasons:
- Talk less, listen more: If I was going to address my privilege, then talking less had to be a first step. Not because what I had to say wasn’t worth it, but because my talking was coming at the opportunity cost of listening. Yes, I could listen on Facebook too, but the platform made it just a bit too easy to fall off the non-preachy wagon. Also, most of the most important voices I needed to listen to were not in my social circle, because that’s how life works. I needed to hear from people I grew up not being connected to on account of my circumstances — I needed to diversify my perspective sources
- The people: Sure, it was fantastic to connect with long lost friends and relatives, but knowing the folks on your social network irl wasn’t actually that great. There was always that dreadful guidance hanging around over your head that goes “don’t lose your friends over politics”. Fuck that. I wanted more to not lose my politics over friends
- Slimeballery: I just could not, if I had any interest in adhering to my values, continue to patronize a company founded and run by sleazy and harmful billionaires like Zuckerberg and Sandberg
And so, here I am, nearly a year Facebook-free and still pining for that slimy soapbox.
