As you are reading this, you managed to find me online. Thank you 🙂 This page has an RSS feed and an email contact form, and I am somewhat active on Mastodon. And that’s it. And that’s enough, I think.
Planned the escape from the metaverse last year in December, but I kept using Instagram. Well, recent developments boosted my determination…
Leaving Twitter – RIP @Herr_Bert
I deleted my account after 14 years and 1.183 tweets on the 4th of November, 2022. This didn’t hurt because I wasn’t using Twitter anymore, and through that, I lost about 75% of my followers there already. Each time I logged in, I was mostly angry or upset. To me, in the last years, it felt like a constant shitstorm, and it looks like it will get worse.
The last post was something like: I am checking out this social media thing: @herrberta@mastodon.social
Here are a few Tweets I am sad about loosing so I’ll archive them here with typos and all:
- Jan 16, 2021 Hundekacke lässt sich gefroren besser absammeln. Ansonsten ist alles gesagt und kann hier nachgelesen werden: #FrauengegenMerz
- Mar 14, 2014 Hund hockt auf dem Parkett und kotzt auf den Teppich – immerhin war’s kein Katzencontent…
- Jan 1, 2010 es ist ein schmaler Grad zwischen Stoßlüften und Schockfrosten…”
- Nov 11, 2009 cupping sucks – literally
- und ich denk noch der flughafen tegel macht mittagspause: nee das terminal wurde geräumt habs nur nicht gemerkt
- I’m stuck in a dessert in inner Mongolia because of heavy rain
- Having a Reuben Sandwich for breakfast made me realise: I’m kraut to be German…
- the swine flu expert said to escape the swine flu epidemic in the fall, I should avoid crowds – I’m living in Shanghai…
- Mein Ma findet Totenkopf Manschettenknöpfe eklig – pupertär! – aber eklig?!?
- Lol: The manufacturer doesn’t allow the use of cell phones in the bus because of interferences with the electronics #berlinlinienbus
- Yesterday, for the first time, I listened to my spider senses telling me to go home – of course, they were right
- I’ll be a dogsitter for a week. Let’s see how this works out, as you can’t tell the dog to get some ice cream and watch tv.
- Paulo Coelho commented on my blogpost about Paulo Coelho. 😮 (The post is called: Paulo Coelho is everywhere)
Leaving Facebook
I log in a few times per month, but I do not spend time there, and I don’t use it on the phone. I feel bad about losing the imaginary touch with people I met once and will likely never meet again. There’s no irony in this statement. I really feel like that.
When I was travelling a lot, it really seemed like we would meet again, and sometimes we did. It really does make me sad that I’ll cut these ties – or at least will make it way less likely than it already was. If we are friends on Facebook at this moment, I have clear memories of you, how we met, and what connected us. Thank you for that moment – you’ll stay in my heart. For now, I deactivated the account.
Instagram -> Alternative: Pixelfed
This is hard. I quite enjoy the content of the 922 accounts I follow. I stopped creating content myself, let alone caring about followers, quite some time ago, though, which is a good start. I also get quite upset when I realize that I have been sucked into the reels and my time is gone – my life is gone. It’s ok for me to waste my time, but with this, I feel manipulated. Especially because I’d most likely spend almost as much time rechecking out the content of the people who I follow if I could stay in the usual feed as I am genuinely interested in what they do and what they post. There’s a chance that a genuine interaction is sparked.
Good news. The more I use Tusky, the less I use Instagram.
Update 11.11.2022: As part of my Instagram escape plan, you can now find me on pixelfed as @HerrBerta. Compared to Instagram there, I have 10.100 Followers – at this moment, precisely zero. Most of the Insta Followers do not see my rare content nowadays anyway. So I have about 50-100 somewhat interested Followers, so in the end, that’s not a reason I stay there, and I am continuously building the mastodon info network, so things are looking good in that regard. Oh, and when using pixeldfed I can simply choose the license for each upload. That’s only one of many things that delight me there.
Update 14/04/2022: Pixelfed isn’t a thing, and while I use Mastodon way more than I used Twitter in the last years of having an account, I wouldn’t call myself active. I deactivated Facebook and Instagram for a few months. They’ll be “reopened” with a disclaimer that they are simply to share my blog posts, and there won’t be likely interaction. Meaning if you don’t care to get a reply after two months, those are ok channels otherwise rather, send me an email.
Is there a way that Instagram only shows you posts from people you follow and nothing else? If that’s a thing, I’ll come back.
Tipps or tricks about social media use that won’t drive me mad? Let me know, please.