[Originally posted to FaceBook on 11 Jan 2018]

I’m going to delete my Facebook account. I’m not 100% sure why, but the more i think about it the more I just want to be rid of it. I don’t spend much time at all on Facebook these days anyway, and so I could just ignore it. I know that I could deactivate my account rather than delete it, but somehow that doesn’t feel like enough. Even if I never look at it, it’s there, spreading its tendrils through the organic matter of my life, farming the details it finds and using them to try to help people make me buy things.

I do love the idea of being able to contact, and to be contacted by, you, my friends. But by connecting you all together via my profile, then I am, in a small way, pulling you all a little more tightly into a web of profiles that will be used to accrete yet more details that will ultimately be used to try to help people make you buy things.

I will miss not being able to post things that come to mind that I think you may like. For about 3 months I’ve been meaning to post a clip from Limmy’s Show that I thought a few of you might get a kick out of. I haven’t got round to it yet. I guess I missed my chance. Maybe I’ll show it to you on my phone if we ever meet IRL. I’ll send you a link if you like. Just drop me a line. Oh sack it, it’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUIOYz3Nj6E

I am bothered by the way in which Facebook is replacing, or more accurately is enabling us to replace, real life connections with digital simulacra. Nonetheless, moving from some imperfect, artificial connections to none at all seems like step backwards. Equally, it also feels like the right thing to do. I’m also aware that I have an apparent drive to deny myself things, so this might just be another manifestation of my gloomy asceticism. I dunno. Seems like a self-defeating and dumb thing to do, but at the same time, I sure do hate the way my friendships have been commoditised and turned into a revenue stream. I also dislike the way we are drawn into curating our best possible selves, something which drives envy and misery rather than empathy and joy.

I don’t want to delete you all, I just want to delete Facebook. In fact, if there was somewhere we could all share stuff that wasn’t Facebook then that would be great. To confound and irritate further, I’m still on Instagram and Whatsapp – both owned by Facebook – for the time being, so you can find me there. Getting a bit fed up of Instagram too, now I come to think about it. You can also email me at email.robmitchell@gmail.com. It would be really nice to hear from you once in a while.

I’m going to leave this up for a couple of days so some of you will know that I’ve popped off. Probably not going to read any comments before I push the button, so if you want to say hello, try and find another way.

If you’re interested to know who’s going to win the Devon Record Club Decades World Cup (and why wouldn’t you be?) then you’re going to need to like the page so you can find out when it’s happening.

If you want to read a little more about quitting Facebook, I found this article helpful: https://www.cnet.com/…/how-to-delete-your-facebook-once-an…/

Ta ta and thanks for all the laughs. We can still be friends.

Rob