Am I Quitting Social Media?
Well, am I?
Before I answer, allow me to state that, last December, something wonderful happened:
I was randomly locked out of Instagram.
If this has ever happened to you, then you are aware that there is no customer service to be gotten in touch with—no one whom to beg for help—and people with infinitely greater celebrity than myself have found the same. It took weeks and finally finding someone on the inside who knew someone else on the inside to get back in.
But I’m not being facetious when I say that it was wonderful, because I learned a great deal. I was doing some pretty fabulous things that I had hoped to share with you during those weeks, embarking upon a journey I had hoped to bring you along for. And I couldn’t. And not only did the world not even slow down, but I found myself realizing three things:
I hadn’t felt free to share with you anything personal, because social media is not a safe place to do that (it isn’t a safe place to do anything, but you’ll know what I mean). And yet, my entire career, my original and incredibly special relationship with you, was built upon my getting very personal indeed. In fact, if you didn’t already know me, if you hadn’t read my book, if you hadn’t studied my lyrics, the most you would have learned about me on these platforms in recent years at least is that I like Phantom, parenthesis, and pith. You wouldn’t even know that I was bipolar, which to many, including myself, may not matter at all, but for people newly diagnosed who are struggling to find anyone in the world who is not only like them but has managed to turn that diagnosis into a superpower, it really, really matters. Ask me how I know (thank you, Carrie Fisher!).
Of course, though I’ve posted nothing personal, I have posted many things that were at least meaningful—new music, recordings in progress, Asylum Oracle readings—things that I thought were the most interesting I could possibly offer, but the vast majority of my “followers” never even saw those posts. If the algorithms decided (and they did) that content which didn’t feature a close-up of my face wasn’t going to interest you, then they didn’t serve it to you. So what was the point?
I didn’t “own” my relationship with my audience. Instagram did. If they locked me out of my account, I was powerless to communicate with you. If they didn’t want to show you that I had released a new song, then you wouldn’t know that I had released a new song. Our relationship was, without exaggeration, quite a censored one. I recognized that my own newsletter was a far more reliable way to keep in touch with you, and then it occurred to me...
Take the Asylum Newsletter, where I have several thousand more readers than I do social media “followers” anyway, but put it online, make it better, deeper, more personal, more educational, more useful, more helpful, and more entertaining.
“Oh,” gasped I. “I think they call that a blog.”
So, here we are, dear Ratties! You may have noticed that I’ve had all Twitter content deleted—I never went there anyway, and neither did most of you. I’ve kept my username of course because if I cancelled my account, it would be used to some ungodly end by someone else.
Next, I took to Facebook, easily the most violent of the platforms, very likely because of the “groups” feature which leads to a legitimately frightening gang mentality. I made a final post, telling anyone who cared that I would no longer be updating that account (I never went there either). Again, I’m keeping the account up so that nobody feels compelled to usurp it. I’d feel self-important thinking this would happen if the reason that I am “therealemilieautumn” and “emilieautumnofficial” on FB to begin with weren’t that someone had already taken my name by the time I got there—the same is the case on Instagram.
Regarding Instagram, that account is still active, as of today anyway. Will I keep it? For a while longer perhaps, if it feels healthy. However, I am changing my approach to the platform:
I won’t count on IG to tell you what I’d most like for you to know. What is most precious to me will be posted here, where you alone get to decide what you want to read, because, frankly, it’s time to take our dignity back, all of us.
If you would like me to email you personally when a new post goes live, I’d be delighted! Subscribe BELOW and let’s take our relationship to the next level. I think we’re ready.
And, truly, Plague Rats, this is so much better...I’m not a selfie girl. I’m not a brief caption girl (I spend more time editing my posts down to fit into the allowed character limit than I do actually writing the posts). I’m not an “influencer”—I don’t make money there, I don’t need the attention, I don’t have an ego that wants boosting up. You and I, we are so far beyond all that juvenility.
I love to teach, to share, to ponder, to experiment, and to learn. I’d like to do that here, with you, if you’d like to join me.
Of course, I would be disingenuous not to acknowledge the temptation to waste this space indulging in my ever-so-strong opinions on topics like why Wikipedia shouldn’t exist, what the punishment for rape really ought to be, and why Kickstarter is a terrible idea (random selection), but I’m not going to indulge. I don’t have time—not in this day, and not in this life.
If I’m going to take time away from making art to be posting things online, and inviting your time and valued presence, they had better be inspirational, educational, enlightening, thought-provoking, or at least highly entertaining. The rest is rubbish, isn’t it?
Now, let’s have some fun…
