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The Cagneys
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
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Tuesday January 28, 2025
Deleting Instagram: Something Else
So another social media account bites the dust. Yesterday I deleted my Instagram account—and with it, Threads—although none of it will be official until Feb. 26. I guess in the interim they want me to think about all the good times we had together. Here's one of their final pop-ups:
Yes, “Something else.”
I left Facebook in early 2020 (because Zuckerberg), left Twitter in late 2022 (because Musk), tried a few of the platforms vying for the crown, then opted for Instagram in the fall of 2023. Which, yes, Zuckerberg again. But at the time I felt Zuck > Musk, and that's probably still true. They're both weiners with way too much money that need a Teddy Roosevelt to bust their trusses. Musk is just farther along the white supremacist scale. He actually delivers the Nazi salute at American rallies, then shows it was all a mistake by addressing far-right rallies in Germany and letting them know they shouldn't feel guilty about the past.
Life has actually been pretty awful since I joined Instagram on Sept. 1, 2023. My cat Jellybean was diagnosed with cancer and we had to put her to sleep a few months later. My brother was murdered. Last February we adopted two cats and within 11 days, and despite four vet visits, one died of (undiagnosed) acute kidney failure. My 90-something father had a stroke, then a bleeding ulcer, then the flu. We elected a convicted felon who promised to bring autocracy to the White House and is doing it. Among the subservient at his inauguration, all sitting in a row, was Zuckerberg and Musk, making the world unsafe for democracy.
I'll never get that everyone keeps staying on these things. Worse, they stay and say “Oh, I'm never on there.” Then leave. You're helping. Our ancestors were able to leave entire countries because they knew it would be better for them and their progeny, and now that progeny can't even bother to leave social media platforms? Stop. Be a person.
Now, for what it's worth, I'm on BlueSky. It was founded by Jack Dorsey, the same guy who founded Twitter. Its current CEO is Lantian “Jay” Graber. Lantian (蓝天) is Chinese for “blue sky” but apparently that's just a massive coincidence. We'll see how it goes. At this point I feel about social media and Silicon Valley the way Woody Allen's character felt about poliltical leaders in “Sleeper”: They're all terrible. In six months we'll be stealing Lantian's nose.