We have always been reluctant users, but as a small business, we’ve been told it’s a must. With the growing evidence of the harm FB/IG does to mental health and democracy, we can no longer support them. If you are a small business, artist, or activist who uses them to amplify your message, we aren’t passing judgement. 

 

Our judgement rests entirely on FB/IG-  it’s algorithms that harm children (esp. teen girls), sow division, promote disinformation, and undermine democracy. 

 

FB/IG is the most efficient ad platform ever, yet it is called a social networking site. Their $1T value isn’t because of community building, but because of the data it collects on you. The best minds (and AIs) in the world work to use your data to leverage your vulnerability to keep you logged on. They leverage your fear which leads to dangerous polarization, and sparring groups full of contempt. There is no real oversight. Without guidance, the brain will focus on fear. It’s irresponsible to toy with that for profit. We don’t stand by Zuckerberg’s insistence on “free expression” when FB’s algorithms manipulate and tarnish it.

 

Facebook, you have the money and talent to alter the platforms to connect people around common good. You can sow seeds that could save democracy and encourage mental health. With that much power, FB/Insta has to be held accountable to the public good, to democracy, to truth- not it’s own profit. Until then, we say no more.

 

While we are away we encourage you to log into your life: fresh air, eye contact, hugs, quiet, creativity, and calm away from social media. Don’t compare your insides with someone else’s outsides. Beauty lives in the complexity, messiness, and raw humanness that we all feel and that’s impossible to convey on FB/IG.

 

Maybe it’s time for you to log off too. Remember, there was life before social media. Live it.