Social somnolence

A couple of days ago I admitted to my husband that I was growing tired of social media. This might seem shocking: I'm a blogger, aren't I supposed to like social media? And yes, I do like social media but not the way it is now ("back in my day..."). On every platform I have a highly curated feed, and if something on my feed appears that I want to see less of, I just use the option to do so provided by the platform. Unfortunately this isn't enough because it will still try to push certain content, even content connected to topics that you've made very clear you don't want to see anymore. I think the reason why I've started feeling so unhappy with social media is that it takes too much effort to make it an acceptable experience. Over the years more exhausting features have been added to the many of the most prominent social media platforms. This ranged from placing more ads to adding certain subscriptions. X is the worst offender with its blue check mark exploitation scheme .

Young Woman. Asleep by Konstantin Somov (1909)

From 2016 to 2022 I took a break from social media and blogging. Not for the same reasons as Nisha Kapashi who's a fashionista turned nun, but because I was recovering from a traumatic experience. When I returned, I started off slowly and didn't post much so I could get used to the huge influx of information again. I was also curious to see what the new meta was: Did Instagram Stories take off and is musical.ly still annoying? Once I stopped being a longtime lurker I became a first time poster, requiring me to get used to the changes in modern feeds: "What do you mean feeds don't sort chronologically anymore?" These are all options that you have to tick yourself and on Facebook and Instagram you have to do this every time you open the app or visit the website making it into a Sisyphean task. With a chronological feed you can stop at what you've seen previously and with the "modern feed" there's no end but it's such a horrible experience. It has an opposite effect on me as well as many others, I assume; instead of spending more time I spend way less time in the app or on the website.

Over the years Instagram has started pushing a certain form of content on people: Instagram Reels. By pushing its professional users to post videos instead of photos Instagram thinks it might still be able to compete with TikTok. To me it seems like every boutique is trying to become a supermarket. With this I mean that most people don't mind needing different apps to see specific content if the experience on these apps is tailored to that content. That's why shortform content just doesn't work on YouTube. People visit YouTube to watch videos that are at least eight minutes long (for those sweet sweet ads). Despite that, YouTube Shorts will still see growth because TikTok is getting banned in a lot of places. Luckily I can say that I don't care as the app was already banned from ever getting on any of my devices for multiple reasons. My brain is already rotting enough because of the meme compilations (or the modern America's Funniest Home Videos) I watch on YouTube and the weird posts I interact with on X.

Lady sleeping by Franciszek Zmurko

For all of the negative changes there have also been positive ones. Over the years social media platforms added the possibility to hide your account and banned certain content making the mainstream web a bit safer for almost everyone. For Lolita fashion this has been rather unfortunate because “Lolita” or “Loli” is also a term used by pedophiles to find underage sexual content. On Instagram there are eight hashtags banned that we know of, and Nycticeivs has a post on what hashtags are still permitted on the platform. These hashtags being banned shows how its user base tends to spoil the platform. This isn’t just the case for those enjoying Lolita fashion but also for those who love Mediterranean vegetables since the hashtag “eggplant” seems to be banned as well. Luckily I know why this is the case yet those who don’t know and have a garden filled with eggplants that they’d like to share might find themselves in a pinch. The Lolita community on Reddit has also had to deal with a bunch of censorship issues over the years. The Reddit community is very resilient and has always fought the allegations of being linked to sexual content. This is why they are still named r/Lolita which I think is amazing for the subculture as a whole. 

Flaming June by Frederic Leighton (1895)

I want my Instagram posts to feel personal and filled with soul .I understand that interacting with social media on a regular basis comes at a high cost: desensitization to the complete emotional experience of the moments themselves. Going forward I will only posts things I'm truly passionate and proud of. Of course, it's important to remember that these companies might shut down or take ownership over my posts (who reads the terms and conditions anyway) so I’ll make sure not to be too invested in these platforms from now on.

Thank you, and take care.