Today I deleted the Instagram app from my phone and also made sure that Facebook Messenger also got uninstalled. I logged into the websites for Facebook and Instagram, making sure I deleted and not just deactivated the accounts for those services. Since I never use it, I’m also getting rid of twitter just for good measure. The only network I’ll monitor moving forward is Vero and I’ll be making notes about how that service is actually working and whether or not it’s living up to its promises.
So now we see if this has any impact on my life at all. I have a few hypotheses:
- Communication with most people will slow to a crawl or drop off completely. People use social media to broadcast their lives to large groups of people, so given that I’ve blocked off that channel on everything but Vero, I doubt I’ll be in the loop about people’s lives.
- Invitations to events will also drop off or at least slow down.
- Requests for donations for charities, targeted ads on my phone, and other such attempts to separate me from my money should also decline.
- I’ll be able to focus more on things in front of me, since it’s now harder to escape by looking at what other people are up to on their social media channels.
I want to be clear here: I’m totally fine with all this. I prefer to live my life rather than narrate it, so it’ll be nice to use that time for more authentic connections and experiences.