Category: InstagramCategory: Instagram

On today’s Substack Live I covered a bunch of topics, from the punk rock flea market where I handed out Social Media Escape Club flyers, to our earliest internet memories — AOL, IRC, dial-up, even real-life pen pals.

We also talked through the real numbers behind social vs. email, why flyers and bulletin boards still work, and what it looks like to deepen ties with the people already in our creative orbit instead of chasing more followers.

The conversation bounced between quitting Instagram, starting local event newsletters, the value of a blog over a static website, and even the compounding power of a simple daily walk (got my 10 miles in today).

Social media is all smoke and mirrors:

Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram) testified that the company has “invested hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two, over the course of my tenure” on creators.

These platforms subsidizing the work of “creators” is the classic “big teddy bear at the carnival” tactics (via Cory Doctorow). Build the illusion by making “successful” contestants, hoping people believe that they can achieve the same thing:

“No one wins a giant teddy bear unless the carny wants them to win it. Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear? So that he’d carry it around all day, convincing other suckers to put down five bucks for their chance to win one.

The carny allocated a giant teddy bear to that poor sucker the way that platforms allocate surpluses to key performers — as a convincer in a “Big Store” con, a way to rope in other suckers who’ll make content for the platform, anchoring themselves and their audiences to it.

Sure, you can stick around on social media and play the game, and maybe someday you’ll hit the algorithmic lottery, but please don’t let that become your long term strategy. Lottery tickets make horrible retirement plans.

Photographer Marcel Borgstijn is another photographer leaving Instagram:

“A nipple in a fine art photograph violates community standards, but watching someone’s final moments apparently doesn’t. These aren’t community standards; they’re corporate calculations designed to appease advertisers and political actors while maximizing engagement through shock content.”

That’s been happening, but now there’s a new straw that broke the camels back: “Meta found a new way to violate your privacy.”

While we can wait for congress to enact laws to protect consumers (hah!), or wait for a new centralized kingdom of power to rise up and take their place, Marcel has a much better idea, which is “building our own spaces and inviting people to visit on our terms.”

Yes, he admits “it requires more work,” but goes on to say “when you control the platform, you control the experience.”

It all comes down to control. If you build your brand, your business, your entire livlihood on a platform you don’t control, you risk losing everything for almost any reason.

If you pay your web hosting bill, and keep your domain name current, your website will outlast all of the creepy social media platforms.

Who could have seen this coming?

It was July of 2023 when Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said this:

“Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads – they have on Instagram as well to some extent – but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.”

But now?

“Our intention is to introduce political recommendations in a responsible and personalized way, which means more for people who want this content and less for those who do not.”

Several friends have said they’re glad Threads wasn’t super political, and a nice change of pace from Twitter.

But when your town hall is run by a bunch of money hungry clowns who are desperate to appease the new regime, this is what you get. The “food court” that you thought was still an okay place to hang out was always destined for this outcome.

Get off social media if it makes you feel bad.

If social media is killing your creativity, stealing hours of your day (and night), making your mind race, bringing up feelings of “compare and despair,” making you second-guess your work, stealing joy, robbing you of sleep, leaving you depleted, disrupting your relationships, your work, and your art, then maybe it’s time to develop a social media escape plan.

Is being a shell of yourself worth a few likes or sales?

“I’m deleting most of my social media accounts (some of which I’ve had for over a decade) because I noticed they were repeatedly hurting me. And I was letting them,” writes S. Grohowski

Worry less about being “forgotten,” and envision a future when you re-find yourself.

“After two months away from (social media), I feel much less distracted and more grounded, present, and focused on what matters most.,” writes Ashley Neese

Trust that the universe will help you get your work in front of the right people without making dance videos or keeping up with the latest trending audio.

“How much hustle do you have to put in before you decide it isn’t worth the grind? There comes a point in every phase of business when you realize that some things simply don’t work—for us, our businesses, and our mental health,” writes 

Jamie R Cox in ‘Am I The Girl Who Deleted Instagram?’

You’re reading this right now, aren’t you? How could that happen if I didn’t post about it on social media?

One of my favorite albums of the last year was introduced to me from an old friend via email.

I wrote about the anniversary of the passing of an old friend in NYC. Their former neighbor found my blog post when they Googled their name. Read that again, friend – they found my blog post. From a search engine. In 2024.

“Lately I’ve been considering leaving (social media) and not looking back, and calling it what it is—an addiction (that’s probably the hardest part as someone who struggles with addiction). It literally adds nothing to my life, other than fleeting moments of “connection” with friends who probably wouldn’t contact me if it weren’t for the 30 second reels,” writes 

Kaitlyn Ramsay

If you don’t want to go to networking events, or play shows in noisy bars, or set up at busy markets, or start a YouTube channel or a podcast, then don’t. Just because other folks are doing it, doesn’t mean you have to follow their lead.

Set your own path, make your own luck, and if social media makes you sick, start dreaming of a life without it.