Author: Maëlys McArdle

I use Facebook like 32 million other Canadians out of the 34 million who are 15 or older. I don’t like the platform; it’s a cesspool. The feed is just slop to capture attention at any cost to maximize advertising revenue, including hate speech.

I’m only on there because there is no viable alternative for the Jeep Club. We have over 2,000 locals as members and there’s no way those people would have found us without that platform. Facebook also has Marketplace.

There used to be alternatives; Canada’s Kijiji for Marketplace, and Meetup for organizing events. Both became more obscure as users shifted from using websites to apps. Too few had the appetite to install apps for something as infrequent as searching for a used item or getting details for an event.

A role for the government

Had the Internet been around in the 1950s, I think you would have seen the government introduce non-profit alternatives in online spaces. Much like governments created libraries and community centers and parks.

I recognize that today’s government would never introduce novel types of third spaces. The notion of community and pooling our resources to lift each other up no longer resonates amidst declining individual prosperity.

Political parties have already spent decades offloading social responsibilities to for-profit companies, or downloading them onto lower governments who lack the revenue to address the need, or simply placed on individuals who don’t have the means and are judged for it.

Nonetheless, I still think that we should have a taxpayer funded alternative to platforms like Facebook. An option that is incentivized to create the best experience for people with the allocated funds. That’s not the case with Facebook where users and their data are the product being sold.

Yes there would be questions about moderation and censorship given government involvement, but those are not new. Libraries and the CBC already contend with them. Plus the private sector isn’t a beacon of liberty here: Facebook has already been censoring news in Canada for years not to mention banning content from women and minorities who get a little too open for the comfort of its American billionaire owners and the puritanical politicians they solicit.

A taxpayer-funded alternative would be accountable to our needs and not those of investors. I believe we can do better, together.

I’ve heard about delayed adulthood among older queer/trans people and those with C-PTSD. There’s more obstacles between starting out into adulthood and those traditional life milestones.

But one thing I’m just realising is that you really only have fifteen years to catch up. And if you don’t, you’re locked out.

Kids is one example. I closed out my thirties having worked through the maladaptations that made me single. But by that point, it was too late. It would take me minimum five years to be with a partner to trust having a kid with them and fifty is too old to have a five year old.

Home ownership is another example. Peers who had two incomes or parental help were able to enter the housing market by thirty. I didn’t have the income, job security or help to enter the housing market.

Those home owners will have their mortgages paid off before retirement. And they’ll have not only all that equity in the home they can leverage for an old age home or whatnot, but they’ll have far lower monthly costs. I spent more money than them in rent, paying off a baby boomer’s second mortgage, but I got nothing of my own out of it. It’s the poverty tax multiplied.

I’m now getting past the age where I could benefit from home ownership at all. Home prices are now double what my peers paid, but they have two incomes and me one. So it’s 4x the cost. At this age I would be paying mortgage into retirement – but I won’t be able to afford it then. This wouldn’t be an issue if my lifespan was longer. Life is just too short and I got burned with the cards I was dealt.

I passed the point where I could catch up. I needed more time, but our lifespans are just too damn short.