A week ago, Meta sent me an email informing me that they'd deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts for some violation of their Terms & Agreements. We all know that I am not the type to violate a term and/or agreement, but they decided to auto-review their decision (what?) of said deletion and then officially, irrevocably deleted me. All before 5am on a Wednesday! Some people seem to have solved this problem (which happens to your average, law-abiding person on occasion) by getting a new username and registering for a paid account (for like $17/month) and then submitting a request for help. Yes, that's right--they will only consider considering your request if you are paying them. A subtle reminder that we are the product and not the customer.
Fortunately, the dog and cat still have their account, so I was able to notify the good friends of mine who follow my animals (the sign of a true friend) that I did not delete all my socials in a fit of pique. That post only reaches so many people, though. I've got a lot of other friends/acquaintances (many from the writer world, and some from art/tattooing, or previous jobs, or previous lives) who--and I'm not sure which of these is more depressing--think I've Irish-goodbyed them, or don't really notice that I'm gone. It's also annoying to have lost all those saved inspo/instructional posts by artists and gardeners. I don't have TikTok, and now I've been unMeta'd, so my ability to access a lot of interesting material has evaporated. Gone are the days where you could easily look at an instagram post without an account. Or expect that someone who makes cool stuff even has a website or a blog. The internet, how she has changed.
It has been more painful quitting instagram than it was to quit Twitter. I imagine this is because it was 100% my choice to quit the latter, whereas Meta took it upon itself to delete literally twenty years of my life (I got my Facebook account in 2006, back when it was just for college students) on the whim of what was likely an in-house AI with a penchant for incorrect flagging. You sassy AI, you.
(Practical note: You know how some websites let you make an account/log in using your facebook or google accounts? I found out the hard way that any accounts connected to your fb also disappear. This hadn't occurred to me until I tried logging into my Fragrantica page and discovered that my profile was gone. I don't know how many profiles/accounts I have that were connected to my facebook account in this way, but I'll find out sooner or later. Let me be your cautionary tale.)
Anywhooters, after the initial processing of feelings re: sudden disappearance from a chunk of the World Wide Web, I've decided not to make a new account. I refuse to give Meta the satisfaction of watching me grovel for a username like "the_real_killianczuba2026". No, I have more dignity than that. And maybe it'll end up being a good thing--less exposure to ads, fewer feelings of physical/occupational inadequacy, blissful ignorance of all the fun times my east coast friends are having without me. (Aside: You'd think the lack of exposure to the visually-heightened panic of political instagram stories would mean less stress, but I gotta tell you: it does not. Even on days when I skip my news podcasts, I'm still totally freaked out 24/7. The year of our lord 2026 is, in general, not a very good one.)
Yessiree, I've got my little victory garden to take care of (if all goes well, we will have a LOT of tomatoes in a few months), audiobooks to listen to, emotionally needy animals to deal with, general chores that need to get done (like a fence so broken, the gate has fallen off), etc. Who needs social media when you've got...well, umm, I guess all the stuff you normally have to do. Somehow changes things a lot and not at all. Classic human condition, am I right?