My Return to Insanity

I've written plenty of times about how, toward the end of 2024, I left most mainstream social media platforms. Especially those that were run by people that could be categorized as being part of what I call our “Broligarchy,” i.e. the tech bros that run companies like Meta and X (formerly Twitter). I cleaned out my accounts on Instagram, Threads, and X, and even fully took my Facebook and WhatsApp accounts off life support entirely by fully deleting them. I found a new home on places like Bluesky (and its underlying AT Protocol) and never looked back because, honestly, I kinda like Bluesky's vibes and AT is fascinating from a geek's perspective and could maybe be the future of social apps.

This past week, however, I did the unthinkable and returned to all of those platforms. It wasn't the first time that I had considered it, either, but whenever I logged into my old X/Twitter account to keep up with the followers there that just never budged, I kept getting bombarded by bots, ads, misinformation, and AI slop. Seeing all that usually wound up preventing me from pulling the trigger on a triumphant return because it kept reminding me exactly of why I left in the first place.

But in the nearly two years since I've been on these platforms, something in me has fundamentally changed. While I still despise the people in charge and a lot of the decisions that they make for the “greater good” (essentially taking away the ability to block other users perhaps being the most notable among them), I found myself somewhat at a disadvantage by not having Facebook, Instagram, or X/Twitter in my digital toolbelt. And that's because, while there was a sizeable chunk of users who made an exodus, most people never left the platforms they were used to. Unless you create a platform that provides them with a compelling use case or solve an issue that they're having, most of the public doesn't care to even look in the direction of an alternative, even if it's a largely better alternative. People are gonna people, whether you want them to or not.

That continually kept posing a problem for me. Living in a small town in the middle of the country, people just use Facebook for everything. If they're running a business? No websites, only Facebook pages. Events happening around town? Facebook has that info. If the power goes out, and you want to check in with the rest of the neighborhood to see if it's just you or if other people are bitching about it in the neighborhood Facebook group? You better be on Facebook! The public library's website even went out for a brief while, and the only way they were letting people know that they were still open or if services were still available was via their Facebook page! Getting traction with the live streaming and gaming communities is also difficult to do without Instagram or X, where a lot of those users still push out news, updates, and broadcast or release schedules.

Most importantly, I also just really miss my people. There are a lot of friends, especially those that are still back in my home state, that I started feeling completely out of touch with. And being able to see their photos and updates again felt amazing and heartwarming. That little taste of connection that I've been missing.

Am I going to keep using Facebook or X or Instagram or whatever super often? Probably not... I've made my web presence elsewhere, mostly on my website or Bluesky. I'm also still a little scared of the cesspool some of these places have become. But I don't know anymore if having these places available as a digital “outpost,” rather than a main base or home, is really a problem. Checking in far less often might be a good habit to have curated, too. Maybe I can start “touching grass,” as the kids say. Who knows?

Anyway, in a nutshell, I'm back on social media. jiggyflyjoe on basically all the things. Feel free to go say hi. Whatever, I don't owe you an explanation for my insanity! 😜