Getting off social media: am I oversharing to compensate for something else?
I have decided to get off social media, and I have spent the last two weeks preparing for it.
First, I went through all my Facebook friends and filtered out the people that I haven’t talked to in years. I then contacted whoever was left and asked them for their phone number and email address.
I have also told everyone that I am trying to step away from WhatsApp as well (also owned by Facebook), and that my preferred apps to stay in touch are Telegram and Signal. I don’t know if everyone will be willing to download an app just to be in touch with me, but it was worth a shot.
Between scrolling through my contacts, reaching out to them, waiting for them to get back to me, and saving their details on my phone, this took me an entire week.
Then I tackled Instagram. On there, I distinguished between people I know in real life, and people I don’t. For the people I know in real life, I followed the same process I did with my Facebook contacts. For everything else, I unfollowed anyone who I thought I wasn’t going to miss, and saved everything else in my Bookmarks on my laptop.
I’ve been purging my Instagram feed regularly so this was not too overwhelming, but it still took me two full days.
I can’t delete my social media accounts yet because they are linked to my work accounts — and this is one of the reasons why I decided I no longer want to be on social media.
For the last year and a bit, I have worked as the Digital Communications Coordinator for a fabulous business that I truly support. The job itself, however, is just not for me.
It made me realise I really don’t care about having an online presence. It made me realise I don’t want to learn about reels, analytics, and TikTok. It made me realise I fucking hate marketing.
And now, every time I open my own Instagram, I feel genuinely repulsed by it.
The other reason that prompted me to delete my social media is that my life is pretty great at the moment.
Since Easter, I’ve been on my phone less and less. I’ve been away with friends, then living off grid for a bit, then camping. Then with friends…
