Why and How I Left Social Media

I’ve never been a rabid social media user, but I have gotten caught in endless scrolling loops. But even if you want to get away from it, the companies make it difficult. Today I will talk about why – and how – I left social media.

I was an early adopter of social media. I got on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram fairly early, and saw the value of each platform. I never did a lot with any of them, but had a full set of accounts each for personal and blog use.

When I became a teacher, my teaching mentor warned me that our principal liked to surf social media and reprimand teachers who posted anything the principal felt was out of line. My mentor had been formally reprimanded because he posted on Twitter a picture of his empty classroom with the caption “the lull before the storm.” I didn’t want to risk anything with the man who would make or break my licensure, so I got off social media.

When I left the classroom, I considered getting back on then, but I found that I really hadn’t missed much at all. So I never went back to using them. I left the accounts open, though, because Twitter is used for cataloging Animal Crossing, Instagram is where I see pictures from my best friend’s travels, and Facebook had groups that supported hobbies I was doing (Nerdy Gurdy Builders, in case you were wondering).

When I decided to take the hiatus, I looked very closely at all the things I was doing – personal, professional and blog – and decided what I was willing to continue. When I got to the blog social media, I got uncomfortable.

I had long maintained accounts on all the social media networks for my blog. I did it because all the experts said it was necessary. So I dutifully researched best times, made up media, and posted with each article. I checked each network once per week (so I didn’t get sucked in). But I hated it. I saw all the garbage that was directed at me – without an interaction history – and decided it was adding more stress to my life than I was comfortable with. Then I looked at my traffic stats and realized I was getting almost no interaction from them.

I decided to get rid of the social media. I thought about just not using it, but I didn’t want someone to try to link up with me on them and then never get updates or interaction.

A Big Problem: Content Is No Longer Mine

One of the problems I have had with putting things on Social Media is that once they are on any of the networks, the content is no longer mine. It can be manipulated, deleted, shared, and whatnot without any sort of control on my part. The things that are my intellectual property cease to be so the minute I put them on anyone else’s platform.

That means that at any minute, any one of the platforms could change something and I could lose all access and/or rights to anything I have put out there.

That’s kind of scary.

Panic at the Disco Closure

It was not easy to close any of the accounts. (I will have a link for how to do it later in this article). But even as I searched, part of me was still saying, “can I really do this?” And “I shouldn’t do this.” And “What if I miss something?”

So apparently even with minimal use over the last five years, the pull and call of social media was still here. I swear my heart rate picked up as I went to push the buttons to close the accounts. All of them helpfully offered a “get it back in a certain number of days” option too, which actually added more to my stress, because it seemed to tell me I should take longer to think about it.

In the end, though, I let it go.

The Closure Process

Facebook. Go to your Settings & Privacy, then to Your Facebook Information, then Deactivation and Deletion.
Twitter. Go to Settings & Privacy, then to Your Account, then Deactivate Your Account.
Instagram. Go to https://www.instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/. If you are not logged in, you will be asked to login.
Pinterest. Go to Settings, then to Privacy and Data, then Delete Data.