Digital Freedom

I’m done. I’m out. Social media is a toxic nightmare.

I’ve been becoming increasingly exhausted with social media over the last few years. I first stopped posting to Facebook because I felt that there was little to no point. I would often find myself typing out a status update only to give up half-way and walk away. There are a few reasons for this:

First was my realization that I was participating as a means of personal satisfaction. I would post things on Facebook and Instagram, only to find myself constantly checking how many likes and comments they were receiving. I was chasing these meaningless little dopamine rushes though a platform that achieved absolutely nothing. On that note…

My second reason is the circular, self-congratulatory nature of these platforms. Political “conversation” was the one area I would still go to Facebook for. That was a bad idea too. This was highlighted for me after Facebook’s role in the 2016 election became clear. All the shit we post stays in our partisan bubbles and rarely escapes. On the rare occasion that it does jump the fence, the ensuing debates are angry, toxic fights that only further divide their participants. You simply can’t change minds from behind an anonymous keyboard.

The final straw for me was my lack of privacy and the very real fact that these platforms are profiting off our data. Recently I sent a text message to a friend saying how my new laptop had very poor battery life. Within three hours I had an ad on Facebook showing off portable laptop batteries. It felt gross. Like, at least be subtle if you’re gonna go through my texts.

I find social media to be a waste of time. It’s too easy to scroll through endless pages of content, most of which are memes, ads, and posts from people I haven’t talked to in years. I’m trying to be more economical with my time and energy as well as encourage my writing and creativity. This website allows me to do just that and gives me way more freedom than any structured social network could. It also allows me to share with a much smaller, more intimate audience. I’m also excited because I get to resurrect my travel blog from years back, something I really enjoyed doing at the time. Shout out to my friend Jacob for inspiring me to pull the trigger on this new iteration of Going There And Back Again.

This is digital freedom!