I deleted meta and all I got was a 7 of cups

The pros and cons of removing yourself from apps owned by problematic billionaires

A lot of people in my circuit of millennial leftists have been talking about social media lately. Sick of billionaires taking over the resources of this planet like it’s a game of Catan with a genocidal expansion pack. We have good reason to want to strike back with what little power we individually have - our daily screen time.

The tiktok shock made rounds when it left for 12 hours and came back censored and strange. Zuckerberg’s leaked comments about swiftly aligning with the current administration were a wake-up call. We don’t even need to get into the mess of “X formerly known as twitter” and the sad little men doing the most to destroy lives of working class, immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA people.

As I read the testimonials of others who have recently deleted these apps, I can’t deny that something feels dismissive. Are there immediate benefits of not engaging on those platforms? Is it worth exploring other platforms? Yes and yes. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel the impact.

A couple weeks into my “meta strike”, I got a notification that my facebook account would be suspended indefinitely unless I opted into something called “facebook protection”.

While it’s pitched as a re-brand of the existing two-factor authentication, for some reason, they made it weird. They don’t explain how they decide which accounts get classified as “public figures” (I’m not). They don’t explain why it’s mandatory either. My husband got the same notification. He and I both have made a post or two about the genocide being committed against Palestinians, and generally get pissed about all the attacks on human rights and the Earth in general. It’s not a far stretch to wonder if this is the cause, as we both had under 1k followers and cannot claim any sort of notoriety on the platform.

I archived my old writings and deleted my profile that I’ve had since 2008-ish. If I wasn’t already on my way out, this was the push I needed. I got the numbers from most of the people on my friends list. I made posts letting people know where to find me online. I have a dummy account for managing our farm business profile. Not a big deal, because I haven’t been active there in years anyway.

Instagram is a different story. A soft spot, because it was my preferred platform. I didn’t delete my personal profile, and I probably won’t (yet?). I did delete the app and all other meta apps like messenger and threads from my phone, because of the data tracking that happens there. I just log on on my computer when I want or need to. However, the magic of taking photos and videos and uploading them directly to my stories and close friends list is gone. I can post to my grid still, but it’s not the same. I feel like an interloper “scrolling” through my feed on my computer, and click away pretty quickly.

Tiktok is still there, still new-ish to me, but We’ll See.

I’m trying out a slew of other apps, like bluesky, rednote, and this here substack. It’s slow going, and sometimes overwhelming trying to get the hang of new platforms.

Anyway, here are my current takeaways, in pros and cons format.

Pros:

-smaller digital footprint. I don’t take as many photos and videos.

-I don’t need to worry about being embarrassed by my old posts from my more wild and unhinged days

-I’m withdrawing my data from these companies, which is what they hurt for the most

-I don’t waste nearly as much time scrolling, more time to work out and go outside. Easier to parent with full attention.

Cons:

-It’s work. Especially if you still want to be present online. You have to learn new ways and find new people.

-It’s lonely work, too. The efficiency of making a slideshow for friends to always know what’s up or have an opportunity to engage is hard to compete with in simple text format, as a lot of my friends are not on non-meta or X apps yet

-I worry about the offerings I have being accessible enough to a broad audience. Farming, writing, gatherings, ideas. I worry about missing out on opportunities to show up.

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At the very least, this has been instructive of how much we have built our social systems around these apps. Given how much we rely on them, they should be a public utility, and not controlled and used by the ultra-rich to extract wealth for themselves. Anything that becomes criminal, either on a whim or a long-held prejudice, is in plain view there for law enforcement and ICE to leverage. They can, and have, and will find and arrest people based on their activity on meta apps.

While this is still very fresh and in flux for me, I am weighing out the opposing thoughts. On one hand, we cannot ask these companies to have our best interest in mind. It’s true that there is power in withholding what they want, which is our data, our attention, and our money driven through personalized ads. It’s also true that no change will happen without a strong motivation to do it, and ideally, that motivation would be a better alternative.

Third spaces, or spaces where people can be without spending money, is a viable goal. Online, and in person, these third spaces act as the commons that capitalism and greed has largely eradicated from our lives. We can all organize to create and support IRL third spaces in our communities. We can also migrate to other platforms that are more respectful of our thoughts, feelings, lives, and memories than what we’ve experienced thus far.

We aren’t going to get there by shaming or belittling the use of these common apps. While facebook is often referred to in a derogatory manner, not for the app owner and policies, but for the people who use it - we are only alienating people. We are also ignoring the valid uses that these apps have come to serve in our lives - for connection, marketplace, events, promotion of local businesses, community fund raising, etc. Posturing as if you’re above all that, like leaving the platform is some easy task, is not building momentum as much as spotlighting yourself.

In my tarot reading last night, I pulled a single card. That card was 7 of cups, which, depending on which deck and tradition you follow, can mean many different and sometimes conflicting things. I am not married to one deck right now, but was introduced to tarot through the Thoth deck, and the interpretation book that I like best is based on that. According to that tradition, this is the Debauch card. It has to do with over-indulgence, addition, delusion. In the Rider Waite deck, it leans more toward many choices and opportunities. Some are gifts, and some are curses. You have to be observant and grounded to make the best choice for yourself, and avoid falling for any curse in disguise. Most interpretations include an element of self-sabotage. This reflects what my relationship with certain apps like instagram had become.

We need to make a change, that seems clear. But it needs to come through collective movement for the next, better, thing. There’s no reason why a social media app can’t be collectively owned and managed. If we’re going to use technology to organize for a better future, and it seems like we will, then we need to go about it in a way that protects us, the movement, and the most vulnerable members of our communities. We need to stop adding value to the assets of greed-sick men as we do it. And, importantly, we need to not let that unravel into disconnection and disengagement.

If you’ve been on a journey with this, or just in conversation with yourself about it - let me know your thoughts.