"The past few weeks" and "can’t seem to crawl out of without someone stepping directly on my fingers while wearing steel-toe boots " are like reading my journal. thank you. validation. I'm sorry you feel anything like I feel.
What a great prompt. I don't think I realized how easy it is to temporarily deactivate. I absolutely am aware of the diminishing returns I feel the longer I am on IG but yet I go back. Story of my life.
Loved this post and your newsletter. As it is. I’m sure the next iteration will be great too.
I want more stories of your heartbreak and healing. The falling, normalizing the loneliness, the belief that we can create again. I like to hear you are connecting with your desire, within self and lovers. Cause I’m in the “betwixt and between” space too. Also “two years here” then off to somewhere, as yet unknown.
Instagram always feels like Times Square to me, so like any good New Yorker, I avoid it. But Fb can be a sneaky drug that triggers despair, and I will delete it.
Wishing you a good holiday. It’s my first without spouse and kids. I’m going to Northampton where I’ll stay with my best gay boyfriend who has disco lights in almost every room 🪩 so a dance party is promised!
And I know there will be waves of grief. When they’ll come, 🤷🏻♀️?
I deleted my IG account in October. It was a long process. Last year I deleted 1800 posts, then spent multiple months of deactivation/disengaged before deciding to cut out. It feels good. After art school I fell into the trap of thinking social media could be a low-barrier alternative to a personal website, to share art. I made a decision to stop sharing art on SM (inspired by the Nap Bishop, to give credit where credit is due) sometime before deleting most of my posts. I didn't want to my personal archives held there anymore. I've missed commenting on blogs (pre-SM) and love Substack for this.
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Kimberly Harrington
I departed all social media a year ago, which for me, meant Facebook and Instagram. I hated the superficiality of facebook and the endless scrolling, and I hated being in the Zuckerberg Empire, which seems evil to me. So Instagram went as collateral damage, although there were a bunch of jazz guys on there whom I follow and respect, who were posting great stuff - stuff that had some meaning. Sorry Wynton, Ron Carter and all the rest.
There's no filling the gaps in social terms - I have no idea which of my music peers are gigging (not much of that these days, anyway), and don't know what my long-lost high school and college classmates are up to. So it goes.
But I did begin reading again, fiction and non-fiction, literary stuff, not potboilers. And that's been spectacular. I'd fallen away from reading books over the years, and wondered how it had happened, and would I ever resume? I spend roughly two hours every morning devouring great writing, and that's as nourishing as anything I can imagine, and waaaay more than social media ever offered to me.
So... good on ya, Kimberly! And remember, as Winnie The Pooh said, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
This is very good advice :) I often feel tied to social media for my work, but I dream of living completely free of it. I think I will try deleting it, and then downloading it again only when I need to post so I'm more intentional with it, rather than endlessly scrolling or adding to stories out of boredom/convenience/habit.
Wow, did I need this today. Thank you!
"The past few weeks" and "can’t seem to crawl out of without someone stepping directly on my fingers while wearing steel-toe boots " are like reading my journal. thank you. validation. I'm sorry you feel anything like I feel.
This is soothing.
What a great prompt. I don't think I realized how easy it is to temporarily deactivate. I absolutely am aware of the diminishing returns I feel the longer I am on IG but yet I go back. Story of my life.
You convinced me! I'm deleting IG.... tommorrow :)
Loved this post and your newsletter. As it is. I’m sure the next iteration will be great too.
I want more stories of your heartbreak and healing. The falling, normalizing the loneliness, the belief that we can create again. I like to hear you are connecting with your desire, within self and lovers. Cause I’m in the “betwixt and between” space too. Also “two years here” then off to somewhere, as yet unknown.
Instagram always feels like Times Square to me, so like any good New Yorker, I avoid it. But Fb can be a sneaky drug that triggers despair, and I will delete it.
Wishing you a good holiday. It’s my first without spouse and kids. I’m going to Northampton where I’ll stay with my best gay boyfriend who has disco lights in almost every room 🪩 so a dance party is promised!
And I know there will be waves of grief. When they’ll come, 🤷🏻♀️?
Tissues in hand, dancing shoes packed, onward.
Exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you!
I deleted my IG account in October. It was a long process. Last year I deleted 1800 posts, then spent multiple months of deactivation/disengaged before deciding to cut out. It feels good. After art school I fell into the trap of thinking social media could be a low-barrier alternative to a personal website, to share art. I made a decision to stop sharing art on SM (inspired by the Nap Bishop, to give credit where credit is due) sometime before deleting most of my posts. I didn't want to my personal archives held there anymore. I've missed commenting on blogs (pre-SM) and love Substack for this.
I departed all social media a year ago, which for me, meant Facebook and Instagram. I hated the superficiality of facebook and the endless scrolling, and I hated being in the Zuckerberg Empire, which seems evil to me. So Instagram went as collateral damage, although there were a bunch of jazz guys on there whom I follow and respect, who were posting great stuff - stuff that had some meaning. Sorry Wynton, Ron Carter and all the rest.
There's no filling the gaps in social terms - I have no idea which of my music peers are gigging (not much of that these days, anyway), and don't know what my long-lost high school and college classmates are up to. So it goes.
But I did begin reading again, fiction and non-fiction, literary stuff, not potboilers. And that's been spectacular. I'd fallen away from reading books over the years, and wondered how it had happened, and would I ever resume? I spend roughly two hours every morning devouring great writing, and that's as nourishing as anything I can imagine, and waaaay more than social media ever offered to me.
So... good on ya, Kimberly! And remember, as Winnie The Pooh said, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
This is very good advice :) I often feel tied to social media for my work, but I dream of living completely free of it. I think I will try deleting it, and then downloading it again only when I need to post so I'm more intentional with it, rather than endlessly scrolling or adding to stories out of boredom/convenience/habit.