no-facebook

This is an update from previous guidance.

If you’re looking for me on Facebook, you’re not going to find much. Social media is great, but Facebook in particular raises a number of concerns for me. Many of my readers and potential readers are on FB, though, so I have a limited presence there. I don’t socialize on FB for reasons:

  • Privacy. Facebook top brass in particular have repeatedly demonstrated disdain for the very concept of privacy. With exceptions.
  • Ethics. I utterly disagree with their approach to gatekeeping my contributions to their ecosystem. See this explanation for a humorous take on it. See here and here for more serious ethical issues.
  • Time. I have nothing against old classmates and girlfriends, but there’s only so many hours in a day. I would rather spend time creating and marketing.
  • Bad associations. There’s plenty of toxic topics and people on social media that I don’t need in my life. I find Facebook in particular to be full of these.
  • Value. In any free service, you-the-consumer are actually the product being sold. Facebook in particular has demonstrated disdain for its users on an unprecedented scale. I’m not seeing the part where participating is beneficial in any way.
  • Adult supervision. I do not trust Facebook to make any decision to my benefit. Even a for-profit company can engage in an ethical sort of business, where the company and the consumer both thank each other at the end of a transaction. I haven’t seen this with FB.

Herein I address any FAQs that arise

Q: You really don’t use Facebook at all?

A: I have a minimal author page, which you are welcome to “like,” but I post there rarely, if ever. I’m also open to investigating advertising on the site, but as of this writing I don’t have anything running.

Q: What do you mean by “sandbox”?

A: I have a dedicated browser (hi, Opera!) that I use for FB and nothing else. I have FB blocked on my other browsers with a plug-in. This prevents “like” buttons and all kinds of tracking garbage from following me around the web.

Q: Isn’t Facebook an integral part of an author’s marketing platform?

A: Nope. In fact, rejection of Facebook can be a component of an author’s branding.

Q: Do you reject all social media?

A: Nope. I go on a case-by-case basis, and encourage others to do the same.

Q: Do you hate Facebook?

A: No. Well, maybe a little.

 

Interested in more from Micah? Come see what I spend my creative time working on. Broken Tablet: Bronze Age Time Travel.