Goodbye, Meta ✌🏽
It’s wild to be alive for the beginning and the end of something as big as social media. I know we’re not at the end, but it sure does feel like the beginning of the end.
I’ve always been a big fan of the internet. The connectivity it can bring, the communities outside of our own that we can learn from, and the FUN we have... the jokes on the internet the day the Queen died and the day we thought Trump was going to die should be chronicled in history books.
But it’s changed now.
I feel like the grandparent who sits in the corner chair yelling, “they don’t make things like they used to!” to no one in particular.
In my day, we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow…and we had to dial into the internet, and we made embarrassing screen names on AIM, and we posted moody poems and cringey fanfic on Tumblr, and we shared pictures of our dinner with heavy filters over them and our friends actually saw them and commented dumb things under them that are embarrassing to read now.
And there weren’t ads.
And there weren’t foreign governments spreading misinformation.
And there weren’t people dying en masse from the latest crisis right next to that cute dog video right next to that reminder to take a breath and unclench your jaw.
For those of us who value humanity over profits,
who want to see our governments and systems focus on collective well-being more than political distractions,
and those of us who want to see the world better off than we found it,
There is what feels like a universal call to reimagine our world in our own image. There’s a collective call for us to:
DIVE BACK INTO OUR HUMANITY AND TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER - BECAUSE THE SYSTEMS AND THOSE WHOSE POWER IS DEPENDENT UPON THEM CLEARLY DON’T GIVE A F*CK.
If 2020/1/2/3/4/5 have taught me anything, it’s that it’s time we all start living by our values.
Don’t just talk about it, be about it.
If you’re not down for the oligarchy, it’s time to quit the Amazon hauls.
If you’re not down for Nazi salutes on Inauguration Day, it’s time to stop buying Teslas.
Mark Zuckerberg’s “descent into neo-Nazi madness” is not aligned with my values, so it’s time to quit Meta.
Because frankly, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg don’t deserve my time and attention.
And that’s a sad truth because Instagram has been my online diary. A history of me…
And I don’t want to lose that: seeing how I’ve expressed myself during all the phases of life I’ve lived thus far, during some of the most pivotal years of my life and seeing how I’ve responded to the shifts in culture, the different ways I’ve expressed my need to make this world a better place than it has been.
So I’m being intentional about leaving these platforms, just as I’ve been intentional about using them.
I'm taking the time to download my content to a hard drive, something physical, something I own.
Then I’m deleting my personal profiles on: Instagram, Threads, and TikTok (idk what’s going on over there, but it’s sketch and I’m just gonna preemptively peace out).
Facebook has proven to be slightly trickier. My original plan was to keep my profile, but wipe it of all its contents. But after trying and researching for a while, I gave up on trying to figure out how to do that. I searched for too long (don't get me started on how Google is also cooked).
What I'm doing instead is creating a new profile that's completely blank and getting reconnected to my business accounts with that profile. Once that's done, I'll delete my entire previous Facebook account.
And then I’m peace-ing the f* out, and here’s where you can find me post-Meta:
Let’s bring back blogging.
More reading.
More long-form content.
Let’s take back our attention spans.
Where to find me:
Here!
YouTube (Don’t get it twisted; Google is still a corporation run by a billionaire, but YouTube is far more pro-creator, and they haven’t gone full Neo-Nazi so we’re doing our best with what we’ve got)
Pinterest - the safe place; when all you really want out of scrolling is to look at pictures of things you like, without all the bad stuff
HOBBIES - think of all the things you did before social media became the first thing you looked at when you woke up in the morning… NOW DO MORE OF THAT.
TOUCHING GRASS ✌🏽
And lastly, some advice:
Thankfully, my team at Strong Brand Social is also having internal discussions about leaving Meta, but I know not everyone feels like this is possible for them. If you and/or a brand you manage feel like it's impossible, I wanna reassure you that it's not.
But you do need to do it strategically! Here's some advice via SBS:
Marketing is a math equation.
You CAN take Meta (or TikTok or whatever platform it may be - because we really can’t trust any of them) out of your equation, it just means you need to replace it with something else that is going to bring you the same answer. You need to balance the equation.
I know social feels like a real sh*show right now, and I know you (and your community) might feel panicked about what you’re supposed to do. Let this give you sigh of clarity.
And if you're a social media marketer who feels compelled to bring this to your team or founder or marketing leader, you can remind them of this and get strategic about how to do it.
Hope this helps! 🫶🏽 If you’re looking for more advice on how to still beat your goals while divesting from platforms that aren’t aligned with your values, SBS is hosting a free event next week called APOCALYPSE-PROOF SOCIAL!
love you 🫶🏽,
Mariah
