Leaving social media (part 1)
Leaving social media is something that has been on my mind for a while now. I love the internet--I grew up with it. I remember when taylorswift.com was a forum site and when we thought Flash Player was forever.
Man... Those were the days.
I love the archive that social media creates. I love the look of my old Instagram grid (before they optimized it for short-form video content), I love adding life events to my Facebook timeline. It was fun! Posting cropped selfies with ugly film filters and poking each other on Facebook was fun.
But, it isn't fun anymore.
I haven't opened Instagram in ages because it is just a cesspool for advertising and consumerism. When I do open Facebook, which I only do because it's accessible from a desktop browser, I don't even see updates from my friends anymore--it's just a stream of rage bait and AI-generated articles.
It stopped being fun a long time ago.
But, I still want my digital archive. I still want the ability to share what I'm doing with my friends and family, but without the noise of likes and comments and reactions.
I don't want to think "Will people think I'm posting this for attention?" or "Do I look okay in this?" or "Why am I posting this? Do I feel like I have something to prove?"
I just want to be.
So, if you're here, welcome! I hope that you'll tune in to The Adventures of Steph and I hope that this might inspire you to pick up blogging as a replacement for social media, too. I want to see and hear what you're up to--I just don't want to have to sift through endless content to get to it.