I recently finished Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now and it makes a pretty compelling case. It helped tip me over the edge to finally just deleting my Facebook account. I’m teetering on the edge of dropping Twitter too. I don’t use Twitter much…it’s mostly just a place to syndicate my writing here. But I can’t say that it brings me much joy, and I don’t like supporting a company that has a hard time finding a moral compass to follow.
I’ve decided to keep Instagram though, because I use it as a tool for artistic expression and research. It’s not that it isn’t toxic, it’s just more useful. I have found that the best way to use Instagram is to simply browse via the web site instead of on my phone. For one, the pictures are bigger. But also it prevents the mindless Insta-gram-checking through out the day. That mindless Instagram-nesia that makes you forget that you just looked at this.