Yes, it’s my birthday! Well it was when i started writing this, anyway. I have a little birthday confession…
This morning I woke up planning to have a totally un-tethered (to my phone)day. I wanted to be present in whatever I decided to do (I did not have set plans for the day before I got up). However, as soon as I got up and around, I checked social for the beginning of those happy birthday messages…and there were none.
For a moment I was worried, until I realized that in some moment of overzealous discipline and optimism about how much I did not need the validation of social media…I had removed my birthday from the public eye (yeah, that was silly). So in a moment of totally predicable weakness, this morning I went and put my date back on my profile so that everyone could see and wish me a happy birthday. It is just always so nice and I knew I would miss it. I am one of the people who loves birthdays, so this seemingly small token of care from others will probably be really hard to miss next year. As silly as it might seem, I have gotten used to these well wishes on July 18 every year for a long time, and my birthday might feel a little too quiet without them.
It is important to me to recognize these moments where the changes might be hard. I am doing my best to honor and make space for them. Thankfully, several people called or texted, so that gives me some confidence to go on!
I wanted to make a quick list of what things I will miss most about the Meta platforms:
Facebook:
Buy, sell, trade groups. I follow a lot of them to buy secondhand clothes, kids items, you name it.
Buy Nothing. I run a local group and it is one of the things that got me through the pandemic. I have made friends there many times, and my house is full of items that tell a story from this group.
Happy Birthday messages!
The organizing that takes place in groups, on walls, and anywhere we can make it happen
Events!!! This one is really hard to let go of.
Instagram:
Educational accounts. I follow a lot of various coach-like accounts for mental health, relationships, community, and really anything I find enlightening.
Art. I love getting inspiration for projects here.
Local shops. i see a lot of good food and events on Instagram.
Photos of course, although they are hard to come by these days.
The things I will not miss:
repetition of things because of the shitty algorithm
staying fake-connected with SO many people
All the ads
Trolls
these new suggestions and videos that are impossible to escape
the mindless scrolling
seeing only the highlight reel of people’s lives
FOMO
the corruption of the sites and the bad ethics behind them
There are plenty of things I missed, I’m sure. what would you have added to these lists?