Not fear that turned me off of Facebook, I just found people’s behavior on Facebook was off putting.
Now let me tell you about the unintended consequences of Instagram.
I Started an Instagram account that was just a photographic record of my XS2 build. I was rather surprised that my account started getting a whole lot of followers from all over the world, especially Japan. Being curious about the people who were following my accounts, I always looked at their accounts to see what they were doing. The Japanese are way into the vintage motorcycle scene, and not just Japanese bikes either, they are very very good at restorations, so I started following a bunch of them. I also noticed I was getting a lot of followers from Indonesia,
there is a big vintage bike scene going on there as well, mostly old Japanese bikes. So I started following some of those guys.
Now here is where things started going weird. Instagram tracks you, they follow what you look at and make suggestions for similar posts. As soon as you start following some people, they start following you and you soon get looped into whoever they follow and on and on. I never knew that Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim nation.
I have no problem with that, most of these guys looked like nice family oriented people. But then I started having some people following my accounts that came from what looked to me to be some radical Muslim accounts. Their accounts were laced with militant political language. If it was jut one, I could think it was just a fluke, but like I said, Instagram starts looping you in with anyone that follows you. It just grows exponentially. More militant Muslims.
I could’ve blocked them but I really didn’t like how this was looking. With visions of Federal agents busting down my doors and seizing my computers, I deleted all my posts and closed down my account.
It’s a shame, because there was really some great vintage bike stuff on there.