Adventures In Social Media

As one of the last sentient beings on the planet seemingly without a Facebook page, it was with some trepidation that I decided that I should finally join the crowd, so to speak.

While I have not had a Facebook page for a variety of reasons – chief among them being my wife forbade me since she rightly conjectured that I would post all sorts of inflammatory stuff, such as my opinions, like everyone else – I have been a lurker on my wife’s page, mainly to follow along with the escapades of family and friends.

When the marketing team for this blog recommended that I make my presence known on social media, I dutifully set about setting up a Facebook account. Perhaps shocked that I was at last joining, Facebook reported back that I would have to wait 24 hours to set up my page. Something about it being for my own security and Facebook is, of course, known far and wide as a paragon of on-line security.

After the waiting period was up, I was then informed that my account had been disabled. Possible reasons were that I might have violated one of their policies, a dubious proposition since I hadn’t even set up a page much less made an offensive post. Another option, I guess, might be they didn’t like the picture of myself that I had to submit, but then I wasn’t real wild about it either.

Following instructions, I reported that I felt I had been unfairly disabled and uploaded proof in the form of my driver’s license that I was not, in fact, a Russian troll (I get that someone named Smith would be an immediate red flag, but since when did Facebook have a problem with Russian trolls?)

A week later, I have yet to hear from the faceless Facebook folk and, alas, remain locked out of my account, so there will be no promotion of this blog on my non-existent page. I have since sent them what I admit is a rather pointedly critical message that some might construe to be somewhat sarcastic about the lack of response, so I suppose I will be locked out of Facebook for quite awhile.

I don’t know about you, but these ridiculously inane encounters with frustratingly inept representatives of mammoth institutions tend to irritate me no end. After the last non-communication with the crack Facebook team, who if they have an old-fashioned telephone or e-mail link are keeping it a secret, I decided to let go of my frustration and not let social media stress me out like it does everyone else.

So I turned my iPad off and turned some music on, in this case some Mavis Staples (and, yes, I let her take me there). I recommend you do this more often, too.