Having spent just one week on Medium, I now realise how predatory Facebook is.

I know, you’ve heard this a million times before,

“Facebook is evil and you should all get off the platform as quickly as possible.”

The only the problem is: Go where? Do what? How will you stay connected with what’s going on in the world, with your family or your friends?

So, our answer is always,

“Yes, I agree. I’ve read the articles, watched the news. Facebook is not a moral company. Zuckerberg is not ethically equipped to yield the power that he does, but there are no other options.”

And then there’re always a few other friends who can’t resist the quip,

“Hah! You’re using Facebook to tell people to not use Facebook,” like they’re the only ones smart enough to see the irony.

And they’re right! It is ironic, terribly ironic. We’re hopelessly hooked to the platform. We’re stuck in its mud. The only way to pull ourselves free is to use the same mud that’s holding us fast. What a mess!

There is no version of the future where we escape Facebook without using Facebook.

If we can accept this as fact, we can start moving forward. The more people that can be released from the quagmire the easier it is going to be. But we’re not going to be able to help people caught in the swamp without entering it first. That’s the unavoidable, comical irony of it all.

Facebook, was the original gateway that connected our world. Once upon a time, it gave us hope for a better world. This dream is now broken. We know this. Now it’s time to use it as a tool to move to fairer, more moral platforms.

Personally, I have been wanting to free myself from Facebook for almost a year. I’ve gone from being a heavy user and industrious content creator to an occasional, light visitor. I no longer load up any original content. I will not feed the selfish monster anymore.

However, it’s only in these last few days that it’s really hit home how predatory a swamp-monster the platform is. I have owned a Medium account for over a year, but never used it. Knowing what I know now, I could kick myself, but hey ho! Anyway, in order to get my Medium account up and running I pulled out some old writings off my hard drive and loaded them up. Lo-and-behold, these old, dusty pieces instantly started to earn money and get traction on Medium. I was stunned!

A realisation hit me hard, very hard! Over the years I have provided Facebook with so much original content and I’ve never once received a single dime from them.

Yes, yes, we all know the maxim, if it’s free, then it’s not really free.

But do we really understand this? Do we live by it? I don’t think we do. I think we all engage with Facebook under a huge misconception which is:

“I provide Facebook with content for free, and they provide me with connections to whatever I want, for free. It’s a fair trade-off.”

But in reality, it is not, and it never has been. We’ve all been duped. The content we provide is worth far more than the connection they provide. It’s a false equivalence. That’s why Zuckerberg is worth billions and we’re all still struggling to pay our bills. It’s possibly the biggest swindle ever launched on humankind. Zuckerberg is not a global visionary. He is actually a content thief of epic proportion. Robbing us of our creativity in broad daylight.

Fortunately, Facebook’s time is ending. More and more people are waking up and realising that they have made a pact with a predatory organisation that hoovers up content for profit and stifles creativity. We are now in the dawn of a Content Revolution, where original content creators will rightly be rewarded for their work. Platforms like Medium are pioneers in this revolution, and if you’re not already signed-up, don’t delay as I did.

There are also other platforms like Narrative that will come online very soon too. Original content creators will flock to these new platforms, leaving Facebook the wasteland it deserves to be.

It’s time…

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