Tap, tap, tap... Is this thing on?
Hey guys! Long time no see! What's going on around here?
This place seems quieter than I remember but I remember mostly my heyday here which, I think was a few years after everyone else's heyday, but it was still pretty damn good. That was back when the world made more sense. I wasn't on Facebook, yet, and Instagram was barely a twinkle in it's daddy's eye. I cherished this place (well not this *exact* place but the old this place) because it seemed to avoid the all of the ills of the internet that literally everywhere else on the internet succumbed. This was where all my friends hung out and I couldn't wait to log on and see what everyone was up to.
But then I realized how much I was missing because everyone here was on Facebook and meeting and planning things in Loopville. So I signed up. Hesitantly, at first, and then more actively as time went on. I remember watching Loopville and Facebook kill the Loop and loathing it and yet participating in it as well. You didn't have to come here to see your friends, you could see them, more of them, right from FB. And, you didn't have to make time to bloop or to read a bloop, you could just post something thoughtless and people would comment and it would feel like interaction so the Loop got neglected.
Let me just pause to say that Facebook is the Walmart of virtual human connection. It kills smaller platforms while making it so easy to one-stop-shop all your distant connections. It is huge, rich, and evil and too big to fight.
Something else happened too. I used to LOVE the denizens of the Loop. I was happy and innocent and felt like I had a community. And I liked it. I liked the people. I loved how connected I felt to people from all over the world, all kinds of people, all ages of people, who I would never have met, talked to, or liked otherwise. And we were all runners and word nerds. Everyone was supportive and positive, or got weeded out pretty damn fast.
But then on Facebook I started learning who people really were. I learned too much and I realized how much less I liked so many of them. And that dislike followed me here. And we were already disintegrating as a community but now there were people I would just scroll right past because I had such a bad taste in my mouth about who they were as a person. And I am sure that happened to me as well.
And now we find out that was by design and I just can't do it anymore.
I'm so sad for the friendships I'll miss out on because I am no longer there but I'm looking forward to all the things I wasn't doing because so much of my time was wasted on FB or Insta. Including this, I hope.
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