Digitally Downsizing
Over the past year, I’ve abandoned almost every social media platform I hold a profile with. Moreso, I’ve attempted to reduce my digital presence, or at the very least, centralize it to this website.I abandoned Substack and Behance, migrating my writing and portfolio pieces here. I’ve sunset my Facebook and Instagram accounts, though I occasionally post a story for my Close Friends list. I deactivated my Twitter and Mastodon entirely. I’ve been passively on Bluesky, but I feel it has all become much of the same.
Instead, I have taken my internet use back a decade and subscribe to RSS feeds, replacing social media profile views with website visits. I’ve done this for a few reasons: (1) digital fatigue—I’ve worked in marketing, specifically social media, for nearly a decade; the last thing I want to do after scrolling on social and through feeds all day is have a handful more of them waiting for me at the end of the day (2) reducing my digital footprint—I used to think getting my name out there was the most important thing, especially during my freelance years, but I’ve learned most of my business comes word-of-mouth and no one has ever said they “found me on Twitter.” (3) information consolidation—not only do I have an RSS reader in my browser that allows all my subscribed-to feeds in one place, but I now can do the same with my personal work and life by building out this website as my own corner of the internet; like the good ole’ days.
Most friends and colleagues I speak with are also overwhelmed with social media, some moving in the same direction as I am. Perhaps it’s because in the past 16 months, we’ve seen the emergence of Twitter replacements—Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky—and after creating portfolios on them to see what the fuss is all about, we quickly learn it’s the same old story.
My social media screen time
Instagram: 1 hour, 20 minutes
LinkedIn: 55 minutes
Facebook: 44 minutes
Bluesky: 19 minutes
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Weekly total: 3 hours, 18 minutes
Daily average: 28 minutes
December 9 – December 15, 2024
I’m still in front of a screen
When I read Slow Media: Why "Slow" Is Satisfying, Sustainable and Smart by Jennifer Rauch a few years ago, I thought it was an admirable endeavor to cut out almost all of technology to live a slower and quieter life. While I do aim for a much more unplugged life than I used to live even two years ago, the extreme version doesn’t work for me, either. I still love playing my phone games like Flow Free—including all the other games in the series like Bridges, Hexes, and Warps—and Pokémon Go is something my fiancée and I do together. I still enjoy feeds of information like RSS while email is a great way to reach out to me as someone who maintains an Inbox Zero.
Instead, what I have tried to do is make the time in front of my screen more conscious and deliberate. Unlike some authors like Neil Gaiman, I struggle with writing on anything other than my laptop, including by-hand. However, I do use my typewriter to write birthday cards and personal correspondence on special occasions.
Social media is not going anywhere
Like, I said, I’ve worked in social media for nearly a decade. Even if we begin to see a plateau of users, there will always be a majority who prefer their life updates and news in the form of an infinite scroll.
As social media platforms continue to replicate features from each other, making only slight tweaks with each new update, it’s going to be a long time before we see something genuinely “new” as an approach for a platform. That being said, even as one drops off, another will be there to fill its shoes.
I am interested, though, to see how digital communities continue to adapt. Chat rooms and discussion sites were largely abandoned for Reddit, which has seen the most consistent userbase growth over a large period of time compared to other social platforms.
Until Apple and Android messages play nice, there will be a need for more aesthetically-pleasing group messaging platforms. While GroupMe has somewhat phased out, Discord continues to grow, as well. Personally, I use Discord for my TTRPG games, providing a central location for each campaign so my friends and I can store assets like images, maps, notes, etc...
Social media is not going anywhere, but we might see a future where intention, not algorithms, shapes the narrative, and where engagement feels like a choice, not a compulsion.