The "last" one
I've deleted my Facebook account, I've abandoned my Twitter account, I haven't used MySpace since Tom was in everyone's top 8 spaces. I use BeReal, but mostly because I have a personal streak going on there and I like the photos. Hardly anyone I "follow" on there ever posts anything any more.
Then there's Instagram.
It seems to be the last one I can't really let go of.[1] I've whittled the list of people I follow down to a small handful. I really want to delete it. I hate Stories. Hardly anyone actually posts photos anymore. And, it's with ads that range from worthless to offensive.
I want to get rid of it because it doesn't add anything positive to my life.[2] At best it's a time suck. At worst... Well we all know how bad things can get on social media and the problems it can cause for people.
The problem is that the 3 other members of my immediate family are deeply entrenched in it. For me to get rid of it would create a barrier between them and me, and none of them are even close to wanting to try and remove themselves from the "platform".
I post this to be honest about the struggle. To be open and accountable for the personal changes I don't make in the face of overwhelming evidence.[3]
So for the time being I'm torn and unable to commit to deleting Instagram. Hopefully, at some point I'll be able to overcome the mental hurdle.
I'm not including YouTube in this. YouTube, while it has it's own problems doesn't rank to me as "social". It has social aspects but it has a much higher barrier to creation. It just seems different. ↩︎
I know lots of people are ditching as part of a political or societal protest. That's not me. I'm trying to be less reactionary about things and more intentional. Protesting, in many forms, is reactionary and at worst performative. While it has it's place, I think it's over used and thus becoming highly ineffective. It's way easier to go to a protest on the weekend than have a conversation to influence your neighbours or family. Being intentional and purposeful about the way we live our lives and how we interact with other people has more of a long term impact I believe. ↩︎
I've added the ability to do footnotes to my posts with this submission as you can see. I get the feeling that the footnotes can become whole posts in their own right. Maybe I'll work on that as well. 🤷 ↩︎