I’ve been fascinated for a while by the disdain most people on Twitter (and among many who’ve migrated to Post or Mastodon) seem to have for Facebook. While I agree that Zuckerberg is an a** and would prefer not to support him, Facebook serves a completely different purpose for me than Twitter (now Mastodon, Post) and I can’t talk people there into moving…

On Twitter, Mastodon and Post I am in a world of people I don’t know irl and am mainly staying informed about and engaging in discussion of politics, political philosophy, etc. Plus, you know, the animal pics 🙂

I’ve kept Facebook devoted entirely to people I know in real life aside from occasionally accepting friend requests from people who know lots of other people I know (and I usually wind up meeting them at some point). There are friends from elementary school, high school, college, almost every town I’ve lived in and several spiritual organizations with which I’ve been connected.

Because I’ve always been a hippie and always found my way to hippies and/or people on a deeply spiritual path, 99% of the folks on my Facebook list are progressives and the majority also meditate or chant or follow Buddhist philosophy, etc.

My feed is full of inspiring memes, interesting articles on politics and climate science, etc. Even more endearing are the posts that keep me apprised of the lives of friends from all stages of my life. The kitchen remodel, the Christmas tree, the party with grandchildren…

Although I use Zoom and Skype more, I also Facetime with dear ones and occasionally someone uses the call feature to reach me.

The spiritual center I belonged to in Lexington has a page and a community group and I can stay in touch with people as well as watch the weekly service on FB or YouTube.

Following Deva Premal and Miten led to finding out about and joining the Global Gayatri Sangha and I’ve been singing the Gayatri with folks from around the world on Saturdays ever since. The group also does a lot of mutual support via FB as well as the sangha’s app.

Following Krishna Das led to joining his Thursday satsang every week and being reminded of them via his posts. And joining the Spirit Rock group means I get a notice whenever Jack Kornfield is giving a dharma talk.

A lot of people talk about FB as toxic and full of trolls, etc. but my friends and I have curated our lists and created a warm and kind space to hang out in. For me it’s a major place of connecting and feels a bit deeper because much of the connecting is with people I know.

Since I know a number of my fellow bloggers are on Facebook too, I’m interested in your experience.