I got this, free, off Marketplace today.

The only thing Generation Z uses Facebook for, these days, is Marketplace.

I’m right there with them. Sure: I appreciate being able to share Elephant articles, or news articles, and I appreciate being able to instant message thousands of friends and acquaintances, and I appreciate being able to share photos and dialogue with friends, and community groups. While, overall, I resent and despise what Facebook has become and done to our world…I do not take what it offers for granted, or view it as black and white. It’s…you know, dark, dark gray.

But yeah: the one thing I love it for, these days, ardently, simply, is Marketplace. It’s like ReSource, our salvage yard, at our fingertips. Every semester (I live on University Hill) many thousands of students trash rugs and welcome mats and lamps and even TVs, nearly new. I hope that some small percentage of that is saved via Free Stuff groups or Marketplace. Yes, Craigslist, my longtime favorite (that also helped to kill media, xing out classifieds income back in the day), still exists. But Marketplace enables you to see who you’re dealing with, their reputation from other Marketplace deals, and even if you have friends in common. All of that helps. Plus, you can instant message re a purchase or sale, which Craigslist somehow still doesn’t offer. That said, Craigslist is more independent, and Faceebook/Meta/Zuck is out to f**k us all for shortterm profits.

So, you know, it’s 50-50.

Anyhoo—this thank you is inspired by my getting a six foot tin sign today from 100 years ago, free, off Marketplace, and posting (also on FB) asking if a pal could pick it up for me possibly, as I don’t have a car—and now it’s in my yard. (Thanks, Lester!)

And thank you, Marketplace, for redeeming 1/108th of the monster that Facebook and IG and Meta have become.

Bonus read:

F*ck Minimalism. F*ck Modern. Give me Joyously Cluttered, Antique, Upcycled, Repurposed.