Hanging Up on Anti-social Media

'Social media is both a dark and brilliant thing for mental health.' (Fearne Cotton)

I hung up on my Social Media (Facebook and Instagram) accounts on April 30th 2025 after 20 years of content and random interaction with friends, family and followers. I get the feeling I'm not the only one doing this at the moment...

Facebook & Instagram - eye candy and keeping in touch

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think that my little corner of social media has changed enormously over the last 20 years. Originally only a few family members were on Facebook, but gradually more of them (and more friends) got on board, and it was so lovely seeing what everyone was up to around the globe (my family is rather spread out internationally, as is my circle of friends). Adverts popped up along the side of the page, very few in the middle of my 'feed', and not many sponsored suggestions of pages I might like to follow.

Of course 20 years is a LOOOOOONG time in tech and in society, and lordy knows we've seen some unbelieveable things take place in the interim! One of my lasting memories of the first Covid lockdown was pictures from around the world of city centres abandoned by all but the wildlife. I have been grateful for the connections I've made and kept, and still belong to some really inspirational groups on Facebook (a great use of the platform).

But as a self-employed creative, using social media to communicate has increasingly felt like a call into an echo-chamber, never knowing who might be hearing me except myself, and unconvinced anyone is interested in what I have to show/say. It has become less about the social thing and more about the media thing; apparently I have over four-thousand followers across the Meta-verse, but often get little or no feedback on my posts. And so, utterly depleted and unconvinced, I am opting for a different path.

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Bringing back the social

After having been harrassed by Meta in emails and other message platforms, (bogus or otherwise) and not being able to find a single human being to help resolve things, I announced to my followers (all four thousand?) that I was leaving Facebook and Instagram for good. The last time I checked, I had just over 300 subscribers to my website, and they will get a weekly digest of what I had planned to put up on social media. No algorithm, no file size limitations or picture ratio/size requirements, just me, my stuff, and my subscribers. Some would say that this is a crazy thing to do for someone with an online business, but the last time I checked, no new business has ever come my way due to one of my posts, so what am I really giviing up?

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What happens next?

There are certainly other ways of communicating with new and existing customers, and as I said at the beginning, I'm not the only person who is starting to explore the options, so now that I won't have the numerous frustrations of the Meta-verse, I'll have time to see what's out there! Watch this space!