I understand many people’s concerns with Facebook and Twitter censoring speech, and I empathize with those frustrations.
However, I do not believe the choice to abandon Facebook for other social media platforms is very wise. It’s fine if you want to try different social media outlets, but abandoning what is still the top social media company isn’t a great idea.
Here are a few reasons:
1. The entire plan is based on retreating. That’s what you are doing: retreating to your own safe space and giving up.
2. The reason social media networks have been pressured so much by liberal politicians is because conservatives have been actually very effective at using social media. Conservative companies have received very high engagement on social media and have used them effectively. For a while, conservatives had been winning on the radio and Internet while liberals were winning on TV and in entertainment in general.
3. Companies such as MeWe don’t have a good plan on how to generate revenue. MeWe doesn’t allow ads. That’s not a very viable plan for growth, since advertising is Facebook’s main source of revenue. How can social media companies afford to continue hiring engineers to develop their products unless they have money to continue to pay for them? This will leave you with a much clunkier and inferior product. As a capitalist, I believe in using the best possible product for what I use (especially if the cost is the same!). It doesn’t matter whether the owner of the company agrees with my politics or not. I’ll utilize to the best service and best product.
4. Even if these other social media companies continue to grow and compete with Facebook, then Facebook will do what it did when Instagram became a threat: buy them.
5. Facebook is about much more than political views.
6. Facebook losing users is probably not going to hurt its revenue much. Some analysts believe that advertising on Facebook and social media sites in general is still low and in its beginning stages, and it will be able to continue raising its rates, i.e. the costs per impressions. They’ll just charge more per impressions.
7. You’ll end up in an echo chamber with just people who agree with you. If you believe in something and want to spread the word, you need to be around other people who either disagree with you or who haven’t come to your way of thinking. If you want to persuade someone to your way of thinking about a matter, you need to make sure you can interact with them and that they can hear you. (Most political posts I see are not very persuasive, but that’s a conversation for another day…)
My suggestion is that you focus on supporting organizations or individuals who you do believe in. Find organizations you do believe in, visit their sites, engage with them on social media, subscribe to their services, advertise with them if you own a business, or shop at their advertisers. Trying to simply punish or boycott a social media company won’t work. It will do more to leave you isolated than hurt the social media site you’re upset with.
Spreadsheets and Overalls 