Internet safety and privacy
I was coming across a video on Instagram about social media privacy, and tbh; it scared me. The person was talking about how AI is learning from social media trends (for example; there is a trend where people say sentences in different tones, and that’s for the learning of AI about how to speak more like a human..)
Since becoming a mom, in 2021, I started to slowly change my perspective about social media. For about the first 1-2 years I’ve shared a lot about my new life as a mom and also showed our little one. But it didn’t sit right and eventually I shared less and less and archived or deleted everything with and about our little one.
The next step was checking my own online presence, and man.. it takes a LOT of time to delete, because in my youth I was super enthusiastic about social media so I have lots of accounts… every now and then I’ll remember a site and check it and take what I want to keep but delete the whole account.
I don’t want all that for our little one, and I’m glad my mother has never made social media accounts, so I’m not really worried about having to contact other people to delete my info and photos from their social media accounts.
But I still find it really difficult to actually delete Instagram. Last month I deleted my private account, where I posted basically only nature photos and occasionally in my story a photo of my private life with husband and little one within the ‘good friends’ mode. But I was reflecting upon the way that I have contact with those people and if it is really REALLY necessary for me to keep it. I noticed that every time I watched the lives of people from my past, I got either jealous, or extremely nostalgic, but I wasn’t actually having contact with them. I just kept the ‘tab’ open. I also kept getting old memories that can be fun, but they aren’t helpful in my life momentarily. It wasn’t helping me to be present with the people in my life NOW.
So, after a year of regularly taking a break by deleting the app, or deactivating it, I decided to completely delete it.
But that is just my private account. Because, as I said, I have been a social media enthusiastic, and I’m also AuDHD, so whenever I wanted to share about a specific topic, I’d make a new account. So I’m now left with a faith based account, a creative account, and an anonymous account where I actually only have contact with 2 friends who I pretty regularly speak to. And in all those accounts I have archived lots of info and photos about my private life. As I’ve shared a lot in my stories over the years, I want to copy the text in a notebook, for memory keeping, but after that delete everything.
I was also holding unto the thought that social media is a community of PEOPLE, but lately, it’s so hard to see what is real anymore.. that’s why I love Bear and the Indie web, I come here a lot to read about all your thoughts, lifestyle etc. It feels real and raw, how humans are. And that is what I want to contribute also. I don’t have to be a big voice, even if it’s just for myself, it’s okay.
But I’m continuing to check my social media accounts and eventually just delete them.