When I left Meta I said I was leaving because of they got rid of fact-checking, kicked DEI to the curb, and I was wasting too much time scrolling on social media — sometimes up to 2 hours at a time when I can't sleep. It just felt like I could be using my time better while also sticking with my values. I think diversity, equity, and inclusion are good for the country and being so vocal about removing your DEI policy reads as anti-Black to me. It's also anti-disabled. Everyone should be able to participate in every facet of society if they want to. DEI makes that happen. It's humane. The fact-checking issue along with Meta cozying up to the regime makes me uncomfortable and I fear Instagram will become a cesspool of racist jokes and facist propaganda.

I don't think any of this stuff is radical. In fact, I think it's all the truth.

So I left Instagram and I got so much time back. I have been the most efficient I have ever been. I still scroll but since it was only BlueSky — a lot of folks aren't over there and it tends to be not all that fun, to be honest — I don't scroll for more than about 10-15 minutes at a time and I don't check it as often as I checked IG. I reach the end of the my feed and I'd go on with my day. I implemented a work schedule with quotas for the various parts of my job and I even scheduled an entire day that could be devoted to trying out my ideas. It has been an absolute game-changer in terms of my productivity to be off Instagram. Every day, I feel like I'm building something. Every hour I spend is an investment in my future and my time is being well-spent.

I am blogging regularly and I stepped way out of my comfort zone and started a YouTube channel. I actually enjoy making videos to show off my products and I should have been doing this all along. I have always loved to write and spending less time online helped me remember that.

But I think I underestimated how much my Instagram presence was helping people get to know me in a way that a newsletter can't. I missed the direct interaction with folks. I missed seeing what everyone is working on. I missed a lot of new knitting patterns, I see, and I missed the community I had built on Instagram. And I now understand that when you're building something, people like to see you doing it. It was lonely over on Bluesky. I was tapped into news but not tapped into anything fun happening. I was missing out on the fashion, art, craft, upcycling, and making. It's a little joyless over there on Bluesky, to be honest. Instagram is more fun. And I admit, I missed making Reels. Yeah, I know, eww. I had fun with it and I look at it as another creative outlet. I have some ideas for YouTube, too.

I have always gotten a majority of my sales whenever I sent out a newsletter. I did not understand that my storytelling on Instagram was driving people to open the newsletter in the first place and maybe click buy.  Duh. This seems really obvious now and I get it.

I'm a business owner. I'm a solopreneur. It's up to me if this business succeeds or not and I'm in this for the long haul. I have goals and dreams to fulfill and I better get on with it.

That said, I did gain new customers by being on Bluesky and more than a few people followed me as I tried Patreon. The open rates on my newsletters remained as high as ever so I think the lesson is I should be on all the platforms and I shouldn't expect my customers to change up where they spend their precious time on the internet. Yes, that's been the advice from every marketing genius since the creation of social media marketing. It's true. I'm not sure I'm getting on TikTok yet — I don't think I'm over my scrolling addiction, I've already spent way too much time on IG and I've not even been back for a full day. But I wouldn't completely rule it out. What's the point of making nice stuff if nobody sees it? And I am making things that are meant to be seen. And I have more planned.

Look, I hate the privacy policies of these companies. I think they take too much of our data and they don't protect it. I think their apps are addictive by design. I think they have too much power over government policy and our eyeballs. But I'm choosing my ability to support myself over being out-of-sight/out-of-mind and that means being on these platforms. But I will not be shutting up about this stuff. Americans need data privacy. And I wanna opt out of training AI with my posted content. There's a total scam economy built for the purposes of bankrupting Americans because our data hasn't been protected. Nothing's being done about it. Something should be done about it. I also hate that these tech companies were so quick to be publicly anti-Black. But they've always been this way. Algorithms suppress content made by Black content creators. They're not inclusive. We are still living in a world where Black people need to be 10 times better to get seen and it's baked into everything. Something should be done about that, too.