Dictionary.com defines the french term Au Revoir as "goodbye for the present", or "until we see each other again". Using it here therefore, seems a doubly fitting way in which use the previous generation of electronic interaction (blogging) as a way in which to bid a fond farewell to the latest (and probably next soon to be abandoned) version of such communication.
Oh don't get me wrong. Facebook has had one a hell of a run. As a method of social networking it has probably grown to level that any but a few of its creators probably would have hoped to give it credit for, to a point where the fortunes generated for those early believers means that none of them actually needs credit again.
Unfortunately, far too many of us (their willing addicts) have taken the unique opportunity provided by the software giant to stay close with friends and family amidst the constant changes and occasional memorable moments of our increasingly separated lives, and turned it into little more than a 24 hour a day version of on-line rudeness, silliness, and non-stop self-aggrandizement. (This effort being no real exception to that rule.)
In my humble opinion, Facebook has over time, become little more than a Pythonesque Parody of itself (with apologies to Monty). Anything 'social' within its Newsfeed has long since degenerated into a bunch of ill-written and mostly unsubstantiated rumors masquerading as news, copious amounts of unnecessary and unwanted political advocacy, shamefully recycled efforts to gather attention from the originality of others, and shameless attempts to gain a disguised form of advertising.
Further, it has far too often become little more than a venue in which we are all expected to acknowledge and accept partisan prejudice (spewed by both sides and in equal amounts) in the form of mostly recycled or dated memes with a check mark of approbation offered in the same way (and often with the same enthusiasm) that we once used to pass on a chain letter.
When all of the fraud and nonsense is removed from it in fact, little of value remains in the content of the average Facebook News Feed (much like the average daily newspaper) and the remainder can be largely ignored (much like the content of the average daily newspaper). That an electronic partnership now appears to be growing between that same obsolete industry and the Facebook News Feed as a 'new source' of pubic information, may in fact prove the uselessness of both in a sordid symbiosis left as an especially ludicrous form of 'adding insult to injury'.
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As I fast approach the end of another decade in my own life however, I find that this realization carries with it an intention to use such a milestone as a threshold. Somewhere between now and that day in fact, I intend to pronounce a Steve Martin 'Citizen's Divorce' on my existing Facebook union. While few if any may notice my departure (or care), I hope that in doing so, I may at least have the satisfaction of reducing my daily dose of blood pressure medication.
For those of you so disgusted with my public rejection of these latest societal norms that you feel the need to 'unfriend' me, please feel free to do so if you must. I apologize ahead of time for not noting your personal rejection, but with my failing memory and the planned infrequency of my visits, I will probably find myself limited to a vague regret and a quiet tear as I take notice of an already declining friends list approaching extinction.
For those few who instead might actually miss my occasional feeble contributions to the social dialogue (both of you), I likewise apologize for appearing to give up so easily on this electronic relationship. Please know that the fault is entirely mine. It's not that my time is so precious that I can't afford to waste some of it, but I that my BULLSHIT detector has become far more troublesome to deal with of late and wading through the Facebook mountains of it in order to get to your efforts may simply have become too difficult to overcome my feeble efforts.
I intend to make no formal departure announcement beyond this, as doing so would provide far more importance to an event that probably deserves none. Know as well that it's unlikely that I will comment on those rare occasions that I do log on as I go through the electronic detoxification process, since doing so would be counter-productive to my stated mission.
I will not delete the software or the account however, as I hope to occasionally utilize the service to check on the goings on of family and friends in the way that I thought that the service was originally intended for. As for the rest of you and it my Facebook friends ...
Au revoir ...
