Hi there. It’s Thursday, January 30, 2025. It’s been about two decades since I wrote a blog entry. I started writing this a few days ago and have been obsessing over finding what I could have missed or phrased better. I feel rusty and frankly not used to writing long format posts, let alone in english…
I’d rather post a picture of a drawing in progress or a funny shape I saw on the sidewalk with a short caption, “hey y’all, look at this”. Quick, efficient, easy. It would get me get some likes and that will give me a little boost and I’d carry on with my day.
I’ve been trying to cut down on social media for years. I would manage to disconnect, oftentimes after noticing the amount of hours I’d waste on there. My good intentions would last a week, and then I would fall back into my old habits.
This time it feels different.
As of January 20, 2025 many friends, artists, small businesses, news platforms and many other users have decided to cut ties with Meta and X due to their horrifying xenophobic and transphobic new policies. People closed their Twitter/X and Instagram accounts after years and years of cultivating an online presence, migrating to alternatives like Bluesky or Mastodon.
Many questions arise post-migration. Some wonder how their small business is going to survive without using the social media juggernauts (Etsy sucks too, by the way). Others wonder what might happen to the many social and parasocial relationships we all built over the years, and how to keep in touch with multitudes of people at once. And what about all the memories collected, photos and thoughts, a time capsule you created, displayed on there for all to see? It’s not easy pulling the plug.
To me, having a social media account (I’m talking mainly about Facebook and Instagram because this is what I use) is the digital equivalent of the little shrines you see in almost every house or apartment. It’s a repository for trinkets and tchotchkes but more importantly memories. Each object (and each post) is a portal to friends and loved ones, places we visited, achievements big and small, people we lost. It is only human to want to hold on to these and having a hard time letting go.
Over the years, these digital shrines got cluttered by content we didn’t initially need or want : the implementation of infinite scrolling, the default For You Page and endless supply of short videos became ingrained in our routine to the point where spending time on social media isn’t really that social anymore.
I was horrified to learn that the Oxford dictionary word for 2024 was “brain rot”. well, we reaped what we sowed. That’s us. That term is a mirror held to our face.
Some friends expressed the desire to be living offline more and more. I agree, but I’m also thinking that this is a great opportunity to rethink our online presence and use of our (precious and limited) time on this Earth.
Can we manage to keep living our digital lives without the addictive features?
Was there ever a “digital sweet spot” in the early days or am I just another nostalgic millenial?
I did go to high school during MSN chat, Myspace and the blogging era. I’d have to dig deep into my memories to remember what it was like to post something without having any clue if someone read it or not, except for a few comments from the same handful of readers. No algorithm to help people find your stuff. All content produced was an offering to the Big Void. It was nice. It almost felt like a private room. An echo-chamber for one.
In 2008, I did create a Facebook account while being an exchange student in Denmark, to keep in touch with my old friends and help me cope with loneliness as well as a 4pm winter sunset. It was before Whatsapp, although I remember tearing up listening to a voicemail of a group of friends singing happy birthday while sitting on my futon in my tiny Copenhagen bedroom. Facebook was like a little shell with cosy blankets inside.
In 2015, I joined Instagram shortly after a trip to Chicago, and ended up moving to the US in 2016. At this point I was using Facebook and Instagram equally. Social media platforms helped me cope with a new, deeper form of homesickness and let’s face it, bouts of depression during my first years in the US, as I was trying to make sense of everything and recalibrate for this new life. Through social media, I was able to hold on to my younger “french” self and make new friends at the same time. It was a digital version of a my beloved house during college years : the same old friends and roommates would be there but you’d meet fresh faces all the time.
Both times, these accounts were created to fulfill a longing for connection, at a time when I was far away from my loved ones. Facebook and Instagram gradually exploited this all-too-human need. And I let them, to the point where I could not imagine getting rid of either of these.
Today, I am at a crossroads. I want to reclaim the right to disconnect and being unavailable at times, and regain control over the use of my time. I know full well that I will fall back into loops, but with self-awareness comes progress.
There’s still plenty of questions I don’t have the answer to:
By joining these alternative social media platforms, are we creating new echo-chambers? Are we going to be even more divided, never united (…I dont think we ever were?)? What’s the future of activism post-large scale social media? Will it be more exhausting to join and follow a movement? How do we maintain the momentum?
As I’m writing this, my thoughts are all over the place. I realize how long it’s been since I wrote anything shaped like an essay or article, and how it feels like doing the sky-part of a jigsaw puzzle. So many questions interlinked.
The Chicago sky is grey and overcast at the moment and I wonder who will see this. Hello, you, yes, you!
The next posts might be focused on the artwork and the projects I’m working on, some shout-outs to friends, some “behind the scenes”, sketches, visual references and stuff like that. Just like…well, a blog.
Will I be able to replace social media with fewer but more nutritious blog entries? Will I be able to ween off the dopamine hits procured by every push notifications? Will I regain mental clarity without this addiction to social media? Would I be able to put this new-found so-called “clarity” to good use?
More than ever before, I might see a way out. I hope you do too.
