Post #147 - Quitting Facebook (well, the main account anyway ...)

I joined Facebook back in 2007 or 2008, I cannot really recall which, but it kind of coincided with the birth of my son, Master Logic, and harnessing its ability to share pictures and information across various friends or connections.  The reason I've placed the term friends in italics is, because, quite frankly, these people are rarely your actual friend, you know - someone you could really confide in and rely on.  I don't think that my main Facebook account ever even reached a total of 100 friends because I wasn't prepared to compromise and accept Friend Requests from a whole bunch of random women who were in the same year as me at school, regular readers of this blog will be aware just how awful my schooldays were and they really paved the way for not trusting any form of friendship in the years/decades which followed.

I've always experienced problems on Social Media and however hard I try, I tend to end up falling down on of the virtual rabbit holes.  Sites such as Facebook can make a person feel very lonely at times - seeing pictures of friends out and about with other people is particularly galling.  My so-called best friend from my schooldays, that is indeed the very same woman who tried to involve me in a threesome with her physically abusive ex back in the nineties, caused me FacebookStress.  Like most of the women I was at school with, she still lives in the same suburb as me and we have broken the friendship and reconnected at various points.  Anyway, she cancelled a night out with me via text and then, lo and behold, I've spotted her checking into some kind of venue with other people.  I called her out on it and guess what?  We never speak.  Mr Logic has seen her in our local Asda a few times and she blanks him.

There was also a mum at Master Logic's Primary School who knew that I was autistic and had experienced mental health issues, as she herself did, plus she also had a stepson who was on the spectrum.  She left the UK to return to her home country elsewhere in the EU and held a leaving do in a local restaurant and guess who wasn't invited?  Me, that's who.  I mean, I wouldn't have minded if she'd sidled up to me in the playground and said:

"Hi Mrs Logic, as you know I'm returning to Scandi in the next few weeks and I'm planning to host a leaving do in [insert name of chain restaurant] next Friday night.  I realise that you may not feel like coming, but just to let you know, the offer's there if you're up for it."

But no ... I saw the ensuing pictures on Facebook.  It's not a nice feeling, believe me.

This may all sound uber petty, but that's my world.  I am very suspicious of people.  Another reason I deleted my main Facebook account was that the connection to my former place of work.  I got quite annoyed when I heard about other people who were still working there and gaining promotion, which I didn't believe they deserved - some did, many didn't.  Also, some friends of friends (FoF) were total arseholes, I tended to block such people, but conversations don't make sense as a result.  There was one FoF who started attacking me on there when I made an innocent comment about children's films being layered to suit a range of audiences.  I'm not quite sure what this person's problem was, but as she was a FoF of three of my Facebook friends, she had to go.  I recently discovered that she'd accompanied a person whom I really respected, to see a comedy performance.

So, there you go - there's my reasons for quitting.  I retain an account to link to my various online games and I still like to pop into the Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio Group and keep in touch with people I actually like, but aren't connected with my former employer.