Goodbye Facebook

 Goodbye FaceBook

Hello FaceBook friends,

This will probably be my final FB post on my personal page.  It’s been a great journey over the last two decades to reconnect with friends and stay connected thru the virtual social media platform.  The joy of discovering old and new friends has been an overwhelming great experience as I’ve had the opportunity of observing many of your life endeavors and praying for you during hardships.  

Real vs Virtual

During real everyday life, I’ve learned that my virtues and values do not align with everyones.  I choose not to have my values compromised by others and simply avoid individuals or groups that do not align with the principals I believe in.  Avoiding gatherings of non-like persons is a great way to sidestep conflict and/or unpleasant encounters.  An example would be to sustain from going to clubs or venues where the majority of people would not align with my values.  

I understand, not all venues are homogeneous, its inevitable that some are sprinkled with people with opposing values.  I simply exercise my right to be polite and manage to avoid interactions or leave if things get overbearing.  Nobody can enforce my attendance or interactions with these gatherings, I have the choice of not attending, leaving or simply avoiding certain individuals at my discretion.  I also have a healthy respect for them to do the same.

Facebook has wonderful tools for evading people; the unfollow, unfriend or blocking allows me to enact control over whom I choose to interact with.  I can delete unwanted post on my timeline and private message those whom I choose to converse with them about my concerns.  Unfortunately, Facebook has a biased group of censors that do not share my values and concerns and have recently over-stepped their influence on my personal perspectives and virtues. My viewpoints on like-minded friends timelines have been censored and charges have been brought against me for simply stating my beliefs or confirming my friends.

I don’t believe I’ve personally ever been in Facebook Jail, but recently I was told that they would not penalize my personal page for using a newly deemed word as “hate”.  They simply chose to go after my business pages and groups (Lagooner and Merritt Island Realty) to punish me financially for the transgression.  They attempted to hit me in my wallet for sixty days, even though I didn’t use my business personality/pages to interact.

Many of you have reached out to me personally during this time period and I appreciate the kind words.  It’s not without thoughtful consideration that I’ve chosen to delete the Facebook app and all Social Media from my devices.

I love all my friends, both real and virtual and wish you the best.  My messenger apps and telephone are always available.  It grieves me that I will not be up-to-date on events and gatherings as easily, but I’m counting on you to keep my in the loop when we run into each other while shopping, dining and other venues.

-Richard