Exactly. For some reason I have this irrational dislike for the Meta universe. I made a choice early on to not join Facebook and since then it has been a like personal rule for me. But I am bad at keeping myself accountable since I use Whatsapp to communicate with my immediate family.
I don't think that's irrational at all. I joined in April 2004, shortly after it was first open to some colleges, and at that time it was great. For the next few years at least, it was a pretty positive place, without all the "engagement hacks" and ads and junk.
I joined Instagram as soon as it was available on Android (2012 I think), and loved it. By that point, Facebook was starting to get a little icky, and I really liked that it was just photos, all positive stuff, and always reverse-chronological.
Then Zuck got his dirty hands on Instagram, and it of course started getting icky in many of the same ways Instagram did. I quit Facebook in 2018, and Instagram not long after, and haven't really looked back. I still would occasionally sign into my FB account for event invitations, but seems like most of my friend group doesn't use FB for that anymore, so that's mostly gone.
Everything Meta touches turns into garbage. It's all about emotional manipulation and getting people worked up about something or other. Your take on Meta/FB from the beginning turned out to be prescient, I think.
well, it's instagram. this'll probably get lots of facebook users to make an instagram account now though, to have an account on threads. under the meta umbrella. every time i put on my quest 2, i get bored before the updates are downloaded. walkabout is the best thing about meta. maybe it'll be the savior.
