#PostSocialMedia

So I think I’m going to walk away from social media almost entirely. I’ve given this some thought, and it’s probably going to put a major dent in my world domination plans, but there are a few reasons I’m making this decision. I’ve seen a few others making similar posts with their own reasons, which makes me think that it’s not just me—others are also starting to see that social media hasn’t turned out quite the way we all thought it might.

I’m one of those people who tend to look back and romanticize the past sometimes. So I don’t get too carried away with my romanticization what I try to do most often is look at what worked in the past and what good things we have now, then try to find a symbiosis between the two, a way to bring together the best of both the old and the new to create something even better.

I’m not entirely sure how to do that yet, but what I do know is that social media feels very fake. Even when I attempt to have a real, meaningful connection with someone on social media, they’re just one of thousands of people I’m following or subscribed to. And even though I truly do enjoy their work, they’re bound to get lost among the thousands of others. There are one or two exceptions to this that I’ve had, but those are definitely the exception, not the rule.

When I do post something to social media, it’s like adding a little micro-experience to a thousand other micro-experiences. We scroll through all these micro-experiences that come together to create one large experience—an experience that’s ultimately not the creation of the users but of the social media company itself. The users just supply the fuel: those micro-experiences that the platform takes and shapes into the experience they want to create. It leaves me craving something deeper, something that allows for creating and sharing more macro-level experiences rather than just micro-moments.

I truly believe there have to be others out there who crave something similar. Maybe by following the crowd in this social media frenzy, I’ve just been looking in the wrong places. Maybe there are people out there to share deeper experiences, thoughts, and ideas with. But to find them, I need to look elsewhere; social media is not the place to do that.

When I look back, I see things like blogs with longer-form content that have been mostly forgotten, probably because of social media and the dopamine fix people chase there. But they’re still around; I’ve found them. Maybe these are places where those deeper, more global connections can still happen.

A consignment store opened up near me recently; it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of those, and it got me thinking about connecting with people locally to share artwork, ideas, and thoughts. I used to do a lot of woodworking; how neat would it be to make a print, create a custom frame, mount it myself, and then share that with someone?

I also feel a strong intuition to do more with my ideas, thoughts, artwork, and photography. I’ve printed a few photos for myself, and there’s something so much more human, so much more real, about taking a photo that you froze your hands off to capture, coming home to clean it up, process it, prepare it for print, mount it, and finally hang it on a wall. It becomes so much more than just a five-second scroll on a screen. It becomes a conversation piece, a focal point in a room, a memory materialized. An experience captured and made tangible.

Maybe this is a terrible idea. It might not get the exposure that social media provides, but maybe the connections made through my blog, where I’ll be focusing my attention now, will lead to deeper, more meaningful connections with people who genuinely appreciate sharing art and ideas. A place where I create the entire experience; not just give more fuel to a social media giant.

Perhaps this move—from just snapping a photo, posting, clicking, and being done with it—to something more tangible and real will lead to something wonderful. I will still keep the lights on at the old Twitter (X) account, but I think I’ll use it more for behind-the-scenes updates and links back to my blog, where the content will live in the format that I think fits it best.

As we enter the Aquarian age I think Social Media will still play a role; but I think its role is shifting. Perhaps it can be place to connect people together still; but less of a place of content. I don’t fully know, but ‘something. seems to be in the air.’

So, if you’re looking for a quick fix, don’t come here. I don’t know exactly where this path will lead, but I see others becoming interested in similar ideas, so maybe we can create something together in a post-social-media world.