D.L. STEWART: Will my life be worth living without Facebook?

Facebook users are concerned about their privacy being violated. Their concern is so great that Mark Zuckerberg felt compelled to run full-page ads in major newspapers last Sunday apologizing for his company’s “breach of trust.” The ads were a clear indication of his concern for our privacy and they probably had nothing do with the $50 billion in value his company has lost since the Cambridge Analytica story broke.

But I want to do my part to help stop all this breaching. So I’m deleting my Facebook account.

Admittedly, leaving Facebook won’t be a major sacrifice on my part. I don’t remember when I opened the account or why I thought it was a good idea in the first place. All I know is that I now have 166 Facebook “friends” which, given my personality, is highly unlikely; most of these so-called friends are persons I probably wouldn’t recognize if they were sitting in my living room. But then, it also says I “studied” at Ohio University which, given my grades, is even more unlikely.

And while the average member reportedly spends 40 minutes a day scrolling through Facebook, I estimate the time I’ve spent on Facebook is approximately 40 minutes a lifetime.

Just last week, for instance, I spent 23 seconds checking my messages. The first one was from a guy I haven’t seen in at least 30 years who reported he was currently eating breakfast at IHOP. Next was a photo of two women I’m pretty sure I never met eating at Fricker’s, followed by someone’s meatloaf recipe. As fascinating as all that was, I might have made it through the day without them.

I’ll concede that some of the videos on Facebook are enjoyable, especially the ones with animals in them. On the same search I saw a cow opening someone’s back door and walking into their kitchen, a bear rescuing a bird that had fallen into some water and a dog walking on its hind legs in somewhere that appeared to be a South American country (I can’t be sure about that, because the text was in Spanish.)

Still I didn’t have the patience to scroll through the commercials, political rants and strangers showing off their vacation photos.

Perhaps I’ll miss Facebook. Without it, how will I stay up-to-date on what my loved ones are doing? It’s not as if I can just phone them, email them, text them or write them a letter. But I’m willing to give life without Facebook a try.

So If you really want to know whether I’m eating breakfast at IHOP this morning, you’ll just have to text me.

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