Q: If you dislike Facebook so much, why do you use it?
Great question! There is plenty to dislike about "the Facebook." I think the user interface is awful. I get tired of the nags about advertising and the juvenile colored backgrounds they encourage users to slap on their posts. I am not interested in having what I see influenced by their news feed algorithm. I use F.B. Purity to help with some of these things. It does improve the experience, but I still find it frustrating.
Then there's the matter of how they make sure that few fans of one's page will actually see the page content in their newsfeeds unless the page owner is willing to pay them (which I'm not). And of course, there's also their censorship of content critical of Islam and other religions, their role in spreading fake news, and the many appalling ways in which they have abused the privacy of their users.
As much as I despise "the Facebook," I consider it a necessary evil when it comes to promoting Atheist Revolution. Month after month, the Atheist Revolution page I maintain there is my best source of social media traffic, followed closely by Twitter. Many readers have made it clear that they prefer to interact with the content there. And so, I guess you could say that I use it because that's where the audience is.
That said, I take advantage of automation (using Buffer) to distribute content on Atheist Revolution's Facebook page. This effectively minimizes the amount of time I have to spend on Facebook. I force myself to check in periodically to respond to comments, although I do not do this as often as I used to or anywhere near as often as I should. At least, I don't do it as often as I would if I was really concerned about growing my presence there.
If it was up to me, readers would leave comments here on the blog rather than on Facebook. I would be far more likely to see them, as would the readers who do not use Facebook. But my preferences aside, many people prefer commenting on Facebook to commenting here. If that changes someday, I'd happily quit Facebook. Until then, I'm inclined to keep up at least somewhat of a presence there.
Update: In January of 2021, I decided it was time to delete Atheist Revolution's Facebook page and my Facebook account.
