I know, I know, I am way too late to this party.
The last time that I posted something on Facebook was March last year, the only reason I still had Facebook installed was to watch what friends and family were up to. Instead of just talking to them like a normal human, I was some creepy voyeur seeing what they had for dinner, or watch them publicly argue with trolls about Covid in comments.
But this week two things happened, two straws that broke the camels back and pushed me away from the platform for the foreseeable.
"They pay you to post? Sounds like a scam"
I recently referred a friend to Leo, he was already aware of cryptocurrency, had a good knowledge of finance and most importantly to this story, knew of Facebooks bullshit. When I told him about Leofinance he simply asked for a link. Easy.
Yesterday I tried the same with someone I work with. The response was: "They pay you to post? Sounds like a scam". This is how brainwashed big tech has people. Despite monumental amounts of money being involved, people can't fathom that some of it belongs in their hands.
This is what decentralised social media has to contend with. The masses are so used to being screwed over that the promise of no censorship and not being treated like digital cattle sounds too good to be true.
Times are tough for Facebook and compensating people for their content, being bombarded with adverts and selling their data to anyone with cash would surely sink the company
The second straw happened today when I realised the valentines gift I ordered for my girlfriend last month was never going to arrive, and the website had been removed from the face of the Internet.
Yep. The baby yoda craze claims another victim. Yes, I feel ashamed.
What does that have to do with Facebook? Well it was a Facebook advert that I bought it through.
One of the data points they must have on me is that I've watched the Mandalorian as I've been getting several targeted ads. And weeks ago I could overlook the creepiness and think of it as useful.
Something existed that I would be interested in buying and had they not used my data maybe I would have never found it by myself.
But selling my data to someone that would use that data to scam me? Unforgivable. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal I knew that they were selling my data to scum, but somehow it wasn't personal enough. I felt like I wasn't susceptible to having my mindset changed by propaganda so shrugged it off.
Using that data to outright steal my money has finally opened my eyes. I may have lost $27 but I have a feeling that my absence will cost them a lot more.