So I deleted my Instagram account. And my Facebook account. And my Threads account. Oh, and even my Bluesky account. (And I do want to delete my WhatsApp account.)

So, how am I going to share myself and my work now? I mean, it’s not like we have to share the intimate details of ourselves, even though our surveillance capitalistic world does push that message. But as an artist and entrepreneur (yeah, I want to come up with ways to earn a living with my art and my artistic process and experience), I do need to share to provide examples, to build credibility, to demonstrate offerings, to get feedback, to build confidence, to sense progress, and to unburden myself through letting go of ideas and projects.

Anyway, the way I’m am and plan to continue to share myself and my work is first through my website and second through my newsletter, which at least for now is just a digest of my website–a reminder to folks who have asked to be reminded that I actively grow my website and maybe there is something new (or old!) of interest. I am also considering sharing my thoughts through a podcast. However, I’m thinking that would largely be a re-expression of writings on my website. And I know that I need to find momentum with posting to my website and sending out newsletters before adding to my social media sharing plate.

There are two folks who have been most inspirational for mostly leaving social media and focusing on channels I control. First,Seth Werkhieser, who started the Social Media Escape Club. Because of his newsletter, Kening Zhu, who provides an inspiring model for creating your own digital world, writes prolifically about how to do that and how she got to that point, and produced an intimate podcast about this that I really enjoyed listening to. I have yet to introduce myself to either of them. I want to and will. I know I’d be glad I did and get inspired more than I have already by them.

Why did I delete those social media accounts? It’s about my values, my energy, and my ownership.

Being on most social media platforms means being complicit in the business of companies that aren’t aligned with my values — companies that I wish didn’t exist or, at the very least, not in their current form, with their current practices and power.

Being on those platforms also takes energy away from me. Energy that is limited and seems increasingly so as I get older (or for some reason). Certainly, energy that I’d rather go to things I value more and have more potential to nourish me. In other words, I thought too much about what to post, how to post it, whether posts were “successful”, why posts didn’t get engagement, and so on.

Sharing exclusively on those platforms, which I technically haven’t done in months, also means giving away my content for free. And giving away that stuff to said companies that I don’t support, or at least have little idea of what their intentions or future are. What I share is not contributing to an expansion of a world that I align with. It’s contributing to the expansion of a world where I am a near-meaningless data point and link in a chain that makes people feel locked to that platform.

It was only a couple of weeks ago. So I can’t claim that my life has been massively transformed. But what’s most important right now is that I still feel (and have felt) very little, if any, loss. I don’t have withdrawals. I don’t have regrets. (Like, I deleted those accounts–poof! gone!–not suspended.)

I do feel an unburdening. While I haven’t found a limitless amount of energy as a result. I do feel like part of my mind has been freed, at least loosened. I’m not thinking about what to post next or worrying about how my lack of success on social media means that I am and always will be an unsuccessful artist.

Before deleting my Instagram and other social media accounts, I had been using Jetpack to automatically share posts to my WordPress website to those social media accounts. I told myself that this was a less burdensome way of using social media. A way of being on several platforms at the same time, with the least effort.I’d get the benefits of posting to social media — “Hello! Is anyone out there? Please see me!” — without the extra work of formatting or, worse, figuring out and concerning myself with best practices for gaming each algorithm and “knowing” my audience. Yes, it was an improvement – a step in the right direction. But it was rare, if ever, that I pressed publish and then didn’t bother to check how the post appeared on social media, so I could inevitably edit that post to fit the platform or audience better. And even if I didn’t, I would have to do things so Jetpack would post to each platform (e.g., it can’t share to Instagram without being provided an image to post, which means coming up with an image for an imageless post).

This approach solved my ownership issue — what I posted went to my website first and stayed there. But it still took emotional energy. Not just the energy to customize posts for each platform, but also the inevitable checking to see if anyone had engaged with my post (even though that engagement was rare to nonexistent up to that point). Of course, this approach also continued to support the exploitation and power of Meta, a company that should be broken up into little bits (literally small(er) businesses) and, even broken up, reined in.

That makes sense for the Meta accounts. But why did I delete Bluesky? For the most part, I deleted it to preserve my time and emotional energy. I mean that generally, but also just not exposing myself to the negativity of Bluesky. I hate to say it, but progressives are a special kind of mean or mocking (and largely oblivious to the concept of karma). I can’t check Bluesky without feeling that energy. I also don’t know where that platform is headed and am unsure what I think about our “need” for social media platforms. Call me a Luddite, but I think using methods like calling, texting, emailing, blogging, podcasting, and vlogging in ways that maintain as much ownership as possible (at least a freedom to change products) are better. So I feel better feeding that vision than a vision of centralized social media.

I didn’t delete my LinkedIn account, my YouTube channel (that I’ve barely posted to), or my Fediverse accounts (e.g., Mastodon and Pixelfed).

Yup, LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Microsoft is too big, too powerful, makes some pretty shitty products, and supports some pretty evil stuff. It should be broken into bits. Keeping my LinkedIn account is the most selfish or insecure decision. I have thousands of connections, and it’s the only platform that has gotten me business opportunities, not to mention it’s a good way to search for jobs, and sometimes the only way I can figure out how to contact someone. What I’ve done is to keep my profile up as a billboard for my business. But I’ve stopped posting to LinkedIn. I’m not working to keep people engaged with the platform. But I’m keeping a presence for those looking to hire a podcast producer, music producer, or audio engineer.

I didn’t delete my YouTube channel because I wasn’t using it anyway (i.e., I am not contributing to Alphabet’s business). I will admit that I was putting a lot (a lot!) of energy into studying YouTubers in preparation for starting to do the YouTube thing. In fact, that was one reason I decided to focus on my website and newsletter. Okay, I also didn’t delete my YouTube channel because I might use it to re-distribute any future podcast. I don’t know yet. Would that be hypocritical or antithetical to my intentions? Well, show me someone with strong values and I’ll show you a hypocrite. That’s an impossible conflict to resolve. I do think the energy, incentives, and impact of YouTube are different and less harmful than those of Instagram. Alphabet is less annoying to me than Meta (and Zuckerberg), but I also think they should be broken up. So we’ll see. I didn’t delete my Fediverse accounts because they just aren’t the same thing. They are basically like using a web hosting service to run a WordPress site. That’s the beauty of ActivityPub (the protocol underlying the Fediverse). Plus, I probably had 10 followers overall; it certainly has been barely an afterthought for me.