Many moons ago, when Facebook was just emerging as a social media superpower (2008), my good friend Thomas Jast wrote an article about it being the end of humanity.

While the site we wrote for/created was steeped in satire, this definitely edged on the social commentary side of things.

Jast is known to be a little dramatic in his outlook, but his article was largely received with commendation. A few even plagiarized it on their own Facebook accounts, which became a fun exercise for me in posting a link back to the original article. Of course, this was back when people actually cared for sources.

However, there were others who mercilessly mocked him for being an old dinosaur who can’t get with the times. Again, we both found this amusing as we were in our mid twenties. “Gramps” indeed.

Looking back at that article now (here it is on the Wayback Machine), I can’t help but think of its prophetic nature. The last paragraph of the article ends on this note:

I, as a human being, implore you to stop using Facebook. Delete your account. You’ll be surprised when no one even notices. It is one of the most evil devices ever created and it’s destroying your life. You are hopelessly addicted and it will be the end of your natural life. I guarantee if you can make it 2 weeks without it, your life will become better in every way.

Yet, here we are almost twelve years later coming to the same conclusions my “dinosaur” of a friend figured out pretty quickly. I see people being quick to share the latest documentaries about the insidious nature of data tracking and the ubiquity of doing everything on your mobile device to aid that along.

The problem has gotten worse and it’s time we collectively put a halt to it.

Let’s take back our private lives by making them private again.