In a recent post, I said that I deleted facebook from my phone for a while. But every now and then, I find myself opening the site to scroll for a few minutes just to see how my friends are doing.
And that’s the thing, isn’t it? I crave to be updated with how people I know are living, but instead, I see so many irrelevant posts, memes, and ads. I’m blasted with so much unwanted content, I silently curse the day facebook added the feature of sharing posts.
It’s not like I’m any better. Before deleting the app, I was sharing every meme I found funny. I was sharing every political post with my own thoughts and even spending lots of time rage-baiting strangers. But eventually, that got old and I decided that I wanted out.
But now, I miss my friends.
I was fortunate enough to experience the early days of Facebook. Those days were marked with chaos. The website was being updated every week and you didn’t know what would welcome you when you loaded the page (Remember the “ticker”? There wasn’t even an app yet).
Facebook haven’t figured out what direction they were going to take the site into yet. And in that chaos, neither did us, the users. So we did whatever we wanted. There were no influencers, no analytics, no likes and views, no chasing the monetization rabbit.
Everyone just posted. And this is what I miss. Because despite the randomness and chaos of the posts, they were all original posts from my friends. They were (mostly) something personal. Of course, the occasional tita would post a meme of a minion, but most of the time, I would be able to read the thoughts and updates of the people I know.
Friend A shared a status that they ate at a certain restaurant. Friend B would post a status about heartbreak. Friend C would post a photo of their family vacation. Before Instagram and twitter, Facebook was the catch-all for everything my friends wanted to put online. And I loved this.
Another important feature that no longer exists in the current Facebook is the ability to view posts chronologically. I would reach the post I last read and know that I have caught up with everyone.
Nowadays, I have to sift through so much irrelevant (but entertaining and eye-catching) content in order to see what my peeps are up to. It’s so draining and un-engaging when your purpose is to be updated, not mindlessly distracted.
And finally we reach the point where my title becomes relevant.
Blogs. Simple blogs. I wish my friends had blogs where they wrote about the things they’re interested in. I wish they wrote about what they’ve been up to, the hobbies they’ve tried, the food they’ve eaten, whatever. Blogs are the perfect medium to keep myself updated without the intrusion of asking them outright.
I’ve long lamented the death of blogs in my immediate circles. Very few of my friends who started blogging with me back in 2014 are still updating. And when I search for local bloggers, most of them are just doing it for money. Gone are the personal blogs filled with thoughts and experiences, replaced by sponsored ads for products and services.
I wish my friends had a quarterly blog post with what they’ve been up to. Hell, I’d even like an AI that would scrub a friend’s facebook profile and compile everything they’ve been doing in the past 3 months into a few paragraphs (But I hope it doesn’t reach that point).
If you’re familiar with The Verge (not linking to it because that website has turned into a pay-walled shithole), their editor-in-chief has a weekly newsletter called “The Installer” where he shares the things he’s been into as well as latest updates in the fields he is interested in. It would be amazing to have something like this for my friends. That way, whenever we have the chance to meet up IRL, we have something to talk about. I love it when people yap about their interests, no matter if I have no idea what they’re about.
But Jai, why can’t you just ask these friends yourself?
You misunderstand. I don’t want to insert myself into these people’s lives. I want to see what they are throwing out there, organized in their own style, without the ads and extra clutter. I want to see how their minds work, and their thoughts on anything in their lives, because they are people I respect and value.
I know that it’s an infinitely low chance the people in my life suddenly get the urge to make a blog, so I’m hoping there’s a way to deconstruct Facebook into something that achieves the same goal.
These are my only demands, Facebook. Give me a custom feed that is:
- Chronological. Latest posts first.
- Only original posts from my friends. No re-shared posts.
- Ad-free. No sponsored content.
- Give me the “you’re all caught up” sign when I’m done back-reading. (not an important want, but a nice feature to have)
Please give in to my demands or I shall just continue praying that some day, the entire Facebook servers burn down so we have to start over from scratch.
And to my friends, these days are difficult. So I beg you to find joy in things other than those found in your phone, and share them with others. Keep shouting into the void because you never know who will be able to hear and who chooses to listen.
Writing and reading,
-jgzn
P.S.
A day after writing the draft of this blog, I came upon another post that tackles the same issue. It’s less complaining than my post, but it resonates with me and shares the same sentiment. Make blogs, please!
