Facebook is more than just a social media platform; it’s a social phenomenon. Other popular social media sites – such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc. – are such that they tend to be utilized, by us users, to appeal to a larger, general audience. But Facebook is intended in such a way that the people who view our content are primarily those whom we have an actual, interpersonal relationship with, such as friends, family and known associates.
THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
That’s important to note, because sometimes we may not particularly feel like dealing with some of those individuals. There’s this episode of the classic sitcom Friends titled “The One with the Memorial Service”. The main plotline revolves around a bit of drama that develops due to certain characters usage of a social media forum.
To note, that episode first aired in early 2003, almost an entire year before Facebook was launched. So it proves that social media sites did in fact exist prior to Zuckerberg and co. doing their thing.
Furthermore, it illustrates that originally, such sites were specifically used for interacting with people you know or who are in your extended social circle, and these forums were meant to highlight what’s going on, both good and bad, in our personal lives. If you were study the origins of Facebook, you’ll discover that it was intended along similar lines, i.e. interacting with people who are actually in your life or who you’re not too unfamiliar with in terms of degrees of separation.
That’s why you may notice that, as far Facebook friends go, there tends to be two types of posts that get the most likes, responses and comments. First are those that are uplifting or cheerful, especially visually so, such as family, vacation or attractive-profile pics. Some people criticize platforms like Facebook for being unrealistically optimistic. But again, that’s what they were in large part created for, to show how we’re progressing or doing well in life.
The other type of fashionable posts are those whereas someone is reporting bad news, such as lamenting a death or posting a personal pic from a hospital. And when you go back to that Friends episode, you’ll see that’s exactly how Ross and his homeys are interacting with (pre-Facebook) social media. Besides personal facts, such as noting what their current occupations, the only other content that seemed to intrigue them was that which is woefully pessimistic, romance-related or controversial,
The reason I’m bringing this up is because, all things considered, it’s understandable how sometimes we users may need a Facebook break. The things we come across on Facebook may sometimes be depressing, in a personal kind of way. Perhaps one of your close Facebook friends is really sick or even died. Or maybe you’re going through a difficult spell in life, which can be more depressing when it seems as if your peers are rather prospering. Or for whatever reason, you may want to disassociate from certain people on your friends’ list for a while. Even celebrities, when they’re in their feelings, can delete their social media accounts or erase all of their content.
So on that note yes, there are times when I deactivate or on rare occasion may even delete my Facebook account. However, I’m doing so with the understanding that, in terms of deactivation, I can reactivate it at any time. Or when it comes to deletion, I have 30 days, i.e. a full month, to cancel the process.
FACEBOOK UNSCRUPULOUSLY DELETING BUSINESS PAGES
But things aren’t that simple. For instance, I’ve noticed recently that when I deactivate my account, which again is only a temporary gesture, Facebook permanently deletes my business pages. That was not their operating procedure in the past. So for example, upon temporarily deactivating my personal account, I recently and unexpectedly lost the original GHfind Facebook page. That was a major blow, because accumulating likes hasn’t been easy.
More recently, I created a second GHfind Facebook page. Sometime afterwards, I deactivated my personal account for only day, and that one was permanently removed also.
You may be saying to yourself ‘well if you want to keep the business page up, then don’t deactivate your personal account’. But I reserve the right to do the latter whenever I’m strongly compelled to. To me, that’s one of the benefits of utilizing information technology as a means of communication. It’s exponentially easier to disassociate with people over the internet as opposed to when you’re dealing with them in person. And again, it isn’t always about others. Sometimes, a person may just feel the need to isolate himself for a while. Even before the existence of the internet, there were introverts or people who at times prefer isolation or solitude.
So okay, now I’ve not to create a GHfind page again. Maintaining a Facebook business page can be sort of a fruitless endeavor anyway, if you’re unwilling or unable to pay for premium advertising. So I was thinking that I would rather begin posting GHfind links on my personal Facebook page.
UNSUCCESSFULLY UN-DELETING MY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Meanwhile, I had recently started the deletion process. I had an episode a couple of days ago where I opted to get temporarily remove myself from Facebook altogether. Upon doing so, I was notified that if I changed my mind, I would have 30 days to stop the process. Well, I tried to get myself back onto Facebook today and have thus far been unsuccessful.
At the heart of the problem is that I registered my Facebook account some years ago, under a phone number which is no longer active. I thought I had already updated my contacts with them, but apparently I haven’t. Or let me say that these days, the average internet user is registered on so many platforms and services that sometimes it’s difficult to stay on top of them all. So yeah, I may have updated my number on one or two other sites but forgot to do so with Facebook. I may have updated my email address or some other contact information on Facebook but overlooked doing so with that phone number.
So now, what it’s asking in terms of reinstating my account is a new phone number, as well as a picture of a photo ID, a powerful one like a passport or driver’s license. That latter step seems a bit extreme, as far as registering a basic account on a platform that has billions of users of. I’m sure Facebook has its reasons for demanding such, but I’m reluctant to go that far to reinstate the account. The way they’ve deleted my business pages and keep introducing all of these ever-changing hurdles in terms of reactivating my account, it feels sorta like I’m being punished or penalized for deactivating it to begin with.
OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
So now, I’ve begun looking to other platforms to promote GHfind. That may actually prove a good thing, because Facebook friends don’t really tend to support business endeavors anyway. Indeed, since you’re marketing more specifically to people you know, Facebook can especially demoralizing from a commercial standpoint, if your friends ignore your business posts for instance.
Earlier this year, I registered with TikTok in the name of promoting TikTok. That hasn’t gone particularly well either. I’m not able to follow other users’ account which, to my understanding, is an important task for beginners in terms of attracting TikTokers to your own page.
The general consensus, i.e. theory amongst other users who have experienced that same issue, seems to be that if TikTok believes your account may be a robot, they’ll disable it from liking others. Okay. At the end of the day, you can’t really tell someone else how to run their business. But this problem or annoyance is similar to the Facebook issues mentioned above.
If a platform has such rules in place, they should at least make them readily known to the general public, i.e. their users. All of these years I’ve been reading and hearing about TikTok, I was never under the impression that such limitations existed, that if I registered I wouldn’t have the ability to like other accounts. Meanwhile, based on research I’ve done, there doesn’t appear to be anything within their guidelines which indicates such a rule actually exists.
So now, I’m starting to experiment more with Twitter, aka X. According to some reports, that platform has been slumping over the past couple of years. But relative to its rivals, it is known for being a bit more user-friendly and liberal in terms of free speech. Also, I’m not really looking to do anything on it besides posting links.
There’s also the GHfind YouTube channel. It’s rare that we go out and film any videos. But when we do and proceed to upload them, it’s usually in terms of lands we’ve come across that are for sale.
CONCLUSION
As for Facebook, I don’t really have any plans to force myself back onto it. A friend of mine, who is more heavily into internet marketing, recently stated that Facebook only tends to be effective commercially when you pay for advertising. And even then sometimes, the results are not as idealized.