So Long
When I publish this post and put it on Facebook, I will deactivate my Facebook and Instagram accounts the next morning. So if you want me to see your comment, you're going to have to do it here on the blog. I respectfully request that you do not leave hateful comments. This is a place of optimism and hope. I will not tolerate negativity toward myself or my readers. So now that we've gotten the logistics straight, I'm going to do some explaining.
And so first of all, I want to post a picture of my cat demanding that I take a nap. Just to set the mood.
Second of all, I just want to say that it's so weird that this is such a big deal. Like it's a major decision for a person to make. There's so much that goes into this choice. Here is what went into mine...
Reasons TO deactivate my accounts:
I compare myself to others and that rarely makes me feel good. Their lives, their pictures, their families, their homes, their friendships, their important life milestones. Not good for my body image or mental health.
I spend so much time on these platforms. I'm interested to see how much time I free up and what more purposeful things I could be doing. Reading or becoming an activist or taking up a new hobby or playing games with my daughter. Taking my dog for a walk. The possibilities are endless.
I struggle with racing thoughts. With platforms like Facebook and Instagram, I am constantly bombarded with information overload. I'm not seeing that as helpful to my mental health.
I have friends all over the place on the political scale. I am passionate about things, but choose not to share those passions on Facebook or Instagram. Some people may call that cowardly. But I believe in loving everyone. Getting political on these platforms would turn so many of my friends against me and against each other. I've seen this absolutely destroy relationships. I refuse to be an instrument of hate. I will find other ways of demonstrating and acting in alignment with my beliefs. If you want to use your account to be an activist for a cause you are passionate about, I have the highest degree of respect for you. I don't think it's a bad thing AT ALL. It's just not something I'm willing to open the door to personally.
Reasons NOT to deactivate my accounts:
These platforms are the only way I keep tabs on a lot of my friends. Thinking about this opened my eyes to a few things. First of all, why do I need to keep tabs on all those people? Some of whom I haven't spoken to in years. What does that do for me? What does that do for them? It has forced me to realize that if there are people I truly care about and want to invest in, I can offer them my phone number or email address and check in on them from time to time. If anything, that is a more personal relationship to me. So take that one off the list.
Where will I share my pictures and favorite quotes and blog posts? Well, that's why I'm publishing this last blog entry. One thing I will be doing with my "free" time is dusting off the cobwebs of the website. I'll install all the updates and get my newsletter back up and running so that if you subscribe to my blog, you will receive email updates. You might be seeing some shorter posts. You might be seeing more candid photos of my children (human and furry) or a pretty sunset or geese crossing the road on my way to Starbucks one morning...instead of a carefully curated stock photo. I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to try to keep the blog more up to date so that we can still feel connected.
How will I see funny memes or cute animal pics or classic quotes? That's where you guys come in. Share pics in a comment on this blog. Or send them via text if you have my number. Just because I'm leaving social media doesn't mean I'm leaving the social scene. I still want to be connected. I just believe I can do so separate from Facebook and Instagram. And I believe this will make the relationships I DO keep up with more special.
So I came up with solutions to all the reasons NOT to deactivate my accounts. I talked it over with my family and my treatment team. We all agree that this is a good move, at least for now. I'm not deleting my accounts, just deactivating them. I haven't decided for how long this will be and I'm honestly not surprised if it's forever. I think I'm going to feel a lot more free without social media in my life. For a variety of reasons. But there's no way of knowing. Maybe I'll miss it too much and decide the pros outweigh the cons of maintaining a presence. Only time will tell.
In preparing for this the decision, I realized just how much of my life revolves around social media. Thinking of the perfect picture and caption for the gift a just received, or carrying my phone on a walk in case we see some beautiful chalk art, or anxiously waiting to see who likes and comments on my most recent post. I mean just in the last 24 hours there have been consistent thoughts about what would make a good picture to add to my Instagram stories.
And I've come to one conclusion. I'd rather make memories and relationships to add to my LIFE story. Not my Instagram stories. I one day hope to write a novel. And I honestly believe that deactivating my social media accounts will make my life more worth reading about. And so that's that.
P.S. Please be patient with me while I update my website to remove social media links, correct the contact me page, and fix my newsletter. Ideally I would have had all that taken care of before I cut the cord, but it's become clear to me that now is the moment to do this. So I appreciate your patience.