Since FB this spring deleted my account since 16 years for no reason (that they would say) I have to my surprise experienced a kind of freedom, a calm serenity. After the initial feeling of being insulted and shut out from my circle of friends and family through no fault of mine I have gradually come to realize a few things:
1. there are other, better ways to stay in contact with with people I care about than through group messages and posts (which is actually an insidious sort of indirect messaging when you think about it).
2. as users of these mega-services we are largely like puppets on a string, victims of the latest fads among governments and advertisers.
3. Meta is, and always was, an unethical service that profits off the wide dissemination of our most private information. And profiting off pure scams, for example those that target poor and naive people with promises of untold riches through crypto schemes as testified by various celebrities (that have had their pictures stolen). [0]
We are nearing the point where we can, nay should, en masse desert these manipulative megaservices like Meta, Twitter, Youtube et al. They represented a certain phase in the history of internet, and as all things, their hegemonies must come to an end. We can for example willfully trigger the algorithms that shut our accounts down, as it is just about the only statement we are left with.
For the sake of our own serene peace of mind if nothing else.
[0] https://www.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-pulls-out-all-sto...