I hate Facebook. Firstly, the interface confuses me. Secondly, the people in charge think they know me, know what I want, and know what’s best for me. They don’t. If they did, I’d be even more pissed. Thirdly, I’m sick of the ads in the middle of videos. Put an ad in a video I’m watching, the rest of that video is not getting watched (also looking at you too, YouTube).

But this isn’t new; it’s just that now I’m not getting anything I need from social media that attracted me to it in the first place, and it’s all because they think they know what you want to see, and then serves up ads for that.

Here’s the meat of it: You click one thing that’s interesting to you, and social media thinks that’s who you are and the only thing you want to see.

TWITTER.

In the early days, the point of Twitter was to see interesting conversations between people you did not follow and who did not follow you, drop in on them, add your 2 cents, and make new, interesting friends. It was like a cocktail party set to mêlée and everybody had fun.

Now, not so much. First, you don’t see many people you don’t already follow or who follow you. Second, people guard their tribes as if it’s inside a ten-foot-thick block of ice. Prepare to be ignored or chased out of the conversation.

Twitter’s usefulness for me is gone.

PINTEREST.

In the early days, the point of Pinterest was to see random things that caught your eye. You pinned them to your board. Searching was encouraged, but who would think to search for things like “Altoid tin art” if you’ve never heard of it before? I was introduced to many, many things I never knew existed through the chaos that was the Pinterest home page. “Search!” they say. “Search!” Um…can’t search what I’ve never encountered.

Now … all you see is different versions of the same things you’ve already pinned. I do not want another elaborate late Victorian, early Edwardian spiral staircase that has been lovingly restored in the same color stain, same carpet, and same wallpaper (almost always William Morris).

This is not useful.

FACEBOOK.

They have the videos tab there. I can’t stand to let a notification badge go unclicked, so I click the videos tab on my iPad. ONE TIME, I clicked on a video to watch how weaves were done. ONCE. I was curious, so I clicked. Now that’s all Facebook shows me. I want the chaos that encourages discovery, not the same stuff I looked at once to satisfy my curiosity.

Nothing is going to change, I know. I’m shilling books (when I get up the courage to do so, I mean), and Facebook’s treatment of my posts is another rant for another day, which I will not do because everybody knows about it and rants about it and nothing changes.

Thus, I am on Facebook because that’s really where my readers are—if Facebook allows me to reach them without paying to do so (which is a rant for another day).

I have to remind myself: If the service is free, I’m the service. But damn. I’m missing out on a lot of fun stuff I don’t know exists and thus, cannot search for it. If you expand my horizons by showing me stuff I’ve never seen before, you would expand your list of things you can advertise.

Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook: I’m not who you think I am, so go back to allowing me to decide what I want to look at.