Argh! I've done it!

Returning to Facebook

I was an early Facebook user, but I’ve been off the social media platform for…I don’t even know, two years or more. I read Jaron Lanier’s books, including Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, and I agreed with his arguments. Since being off, I have not missed the emotional rollercoaster of the dopamine-algorithm complex. And I’ve been happy to not be supporting the people who are destroying media and democracy.

But I’ve also cut myself off from people with whom my only connection was FB. And from people who might be working on the same types of things I am, who I might not encounter on LinkedIn or Twitter. Finally, I’ve become a professor at a regional university. I have a history program, courses, and events to publicize. In the old days, before social media, people would advertise their news in a local newspaper, even if they personally disliked its owner or his political agenda. So maybe I’ve been a bit too…critical of the medium, causing me to fail sending my message.

This will be a different FB page from the one I once had, though. I’m calling myself “Dan Allosso, PhD” in the “Bio” not as a brag, but as a reminder to myself that this is a professional page rather than a personal one. If you have a personal message for me, feel free to DM me. But I’m going to try to keep my feeds and posts restricted to work-related information. I’ve been off for so long I’m not even sure how all these things work nowadays, but I’m going to try!. Thanks for understanding.