On leaving Facebook

I've been away. And I would normally love sharing my adventures with you all: The beach, the sights, the stories…

But something about Zuckerberg cosplaying Musk’s wannabe cuck, and the little cozying up to the goose-stepping U.S. President makes me want to be here less and less.

I have tried leaving Facebook before, and I missed a birth (three kids, friends to be precise, “but we posted about it on Facebook”, they said) and of death (“Oh, you’re not on Facebook any more, are you? so you won’t know Phil died”).  I came back.  I was never sure it was the right choice.  Maybe things will be easier. Now more people don't want to donate their data for others to manipulate, regulate and resell back to you.

And although I regret not leaving Twitter sooner when all the signs were there, the truth is I need to stay on Facebook for work. Maybe this too will change. Maybe it is incompatible to be trying to impact structural inequality whilst feeding the machine which actually profits from fear, division and click-bait hatred.

But, for now, I want to continue to share the life-changing tools I teach at www.SelfCareSchool.co.uk, to quieten the inner gremlins and stop some of the ways we can be our own worst enemies.

I just no longer want to be giving my words and thoughts to a man who does not believe that Black Lives Matter, who believes Eurocentric gender binary ideology is worth risking others’ safety for, who thinks that safety, equity and equality are silly little obstacles to overcome to get to more profit.  He is not my people.  He cannot have my things for free any longer.

Facebook has, in some ways, been a beautiful way of keeping in touch, worldwide, with a lifetime of humans I have loved, shared spaces and broken bread with. And for that reason, I stay.  For now.

But you'll probably be hearing from me a little less.

If you wanted to stay connected, every week and send an e-mail of things that I'm thinking about working through, or are touching my soul a little.  I try to write from the heart. You can join that mailing list here:

https://heardinlondon.myflodesk.com/selfcaresundays

Each week I release a podcast (which I try and keep under 5 minutes per episode), which is me talking about emotional well-being and compassion and trying to offer a tip or trick to speak to ourselves with more kindness. You can listen to that here:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/heardinlondon

I am over on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/heardinlondon.bsky.social which, for now, seems to be a fun place to be, and I follow lots of people who make me giggle there.

My photography work is over at www.HeardinLondon.com

My coaching work is over at www.SeflCareSchool.co.uk

Because trying to survive in the latter days of capitalism is complicated, I'm still over on Instagram, which is, of course, just as bad. But there I show brilliant humans who have honoured me with their time to create memories and capture a piece of their story: https://www.instagram.com/heardinlondon/

And if you really wanna go retro, you could always pick up the phone.

If you've got big news, don't leave it to chance, I'd love to hear from you. Let's not let our friendships slide just because fascists are gaining more power. That seems like a terrible, terrible reason.

I hope to see you somewhere soon, on or offline.