Why I switched off Facebook – and it’s bliss

I struggle to understand why the Albanese government is letting Meta run riot, with some Australians losing life savings via Facebook scams. Thankfully, we can all make a choice.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg at the UFC 298 in February in Anaheim, California. Picture: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

I struggle to understand how people can be scammed on Facebook – but even more so, why the Albanese government is letting its parent company Meta run riot.

Maybe because in my experience, ignorance is bliss.

I can clearly remember when I deactivated my Facebook account in 2011. It was simple, a few clicks and after about four years or so on the platform, I was unplugged.

Back then, my feed was filled with my friends and contacts posting about the holidays they were on or making other innocuous chatter like what they had for breakfast – and I was hooked. I’d post something and couldn’t help reaching for the app, wanting to know how many likes or comments my thought bubbles were attracting.

I was addicted – and of course the platform is designed to keep giving you those dopamine hits. It was Christmas, 2010 when I realised the toxic grip it had on me. My cousin posted she was bored of our family gathering. I saw it and questioned her on it, in my typically cheeky manner. But my sense of humour wasn’t appreciated and a row ensued. Over one silly post.

A few months earlier, one of my friends had written a song about discovering – via Facebook – that her boyfriend had cheated on her.

Facebook may have provided a community service. But, naturally, it made her feel hurt and angry, with her pain spilling over into a song. “That boring leech, I saw the photos on the ‘Book. Her hand on your chest makes me vomit every time I look”.

It was a good song, and Triple J Unearthed thought so too. I even wrote an article about it for The Age, my employer at the time.

It made me question what was the purpose of what was then a relatively new phenomenon. Social media is supposed to bring us closer together, but increasingly it drives us apart.

I rarely tweet or X these days for the same reason, it is like stepping into a bar fight, and being a redhead, I’m already known to be fiery. I don’t need another reason to feel angry at the world.

Maybe such an effect is inevitable. Sigmund Freud came up with the theory of narcissism of the small differences more than 100 years ago – long before Mark Zuckerberg founded ‘the social network’. Freud’s idea was that the more people share commonalities, the more likely they are to engage in feuds because of the hypersensitivity to minor differences perceived in one another.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg as he enters the Japanese prime minister's office during his visit to Tokyo. Picture: JIJI Press/AFP

Social media algorithms are designed to display content that appeals to you – or mirrors your world view. Like drinking too much alcohol, your current mental state can be intensified quickly.

I quickly decided this was not me – everyone is free to choose. So in a few simple clicks, I deactivated my Facebook account.

There have been a few times that I have reactivated the account – which still exists in the cloud waiting to be awakened from its slumber – but each time I do, I switch it off just as quickly again because I feel more and more, Facebook has drifted away from what made it so fun in its early days.

Instead of seeing my friends’ posts, now my feed is polluted by advertisements or sponsored posts – including get rich schemes purportedly from someone who looks a lot like Twiggy Forrest.

Social media platforms have become greedy – seduced by advertising riches, even if those ads promote the work of criminal syndicates – with Meta dominating the market.

Forrest is fighting to hold Meta to account, pursuing it in the Australian and US courts.

But the commonwealth doesn’t seem willing to share the same zeal as Forrest, who suffered a blow on Friday when the Department of Public Prosecutions dropped charges laid against Meta over its fraudulent advertising.

It’s a bizarre move and reinforces an anything goes, wild west mentality that permeates the digital landscape. If our regulators and governments aren’t prepared to tackle Meta and others, then what hope does a 72-year-old Western Australian known as “FZ”, who lost $250,000 after falling victim to a Facebook scam, and others have?

The NSW government and casino regulator have threatened to tear up Star Entertainment’s license – forcing chief executive Robbie Cooke out the door after about 18 months – saying it is not moving quickly enough to clean up its money laundering past.

Yet, the commonwealth is letting criminals gangs spruik their wares on Meta and swindle innocent Australians.

It represents a clear double standard. For my part, the easiest thing to do is leave my account sleeping in the cloud – and transfer my gaze from the screen to the world around me. Maybe others will find some solace doing the same.

Originally published as Why I switched off Facebook – and it’s bliss