I scheduled my Facebook and Instagram accounts for deletion last night. You can’t just “delete” your accounts right away, you have to wait 30 days until they really are deleted. Part of this is a “cooling off” thing, which I understand, but I know a big part of it is that Meta doesn’t really want you to delete your accounts. They want you to cave and come back.
Why Did I Delete My Facebook and Instagram Accounts?
A few reasons. I’ve been thinking about doing so for the past year and change, I took breaks, got rid of the apps, etc. I’m just mentally in a better place without Facebook and Instagram, I’ve come to realize that.
The latest push to do so was the upcoming changes Meta is forcing on those with a business account, which I had. I’ve heard conflicting things that they’ve changed the language of the new agreements. Regardless if it changed or not, the new deal was anyone with a business account that had a website linked was forced to allow Meta to scrape their website(s) for AI training. I’m sure this included anything posted on Meta accounts too.
On top of that, I’m just over Meta. The apps and sites are mostly ads, rage baiting for engagement, and forcing AI slop/features upon users. I just don’t care anymore. The bad is out weighing the good.
Will Dumping Meta Hurt Me as an Artist?
Maybe in the short term? I really don’t think so, in the long run. Having a Facebook page is basically useless unless you are spending money these days. I wasn’t spending money on my Facebook page, so my reach was pretty much zero. You can’t even post links without paying anymore.
I had almost two thousand followers on Instagram, but I saw very little engagement. The twist of the knife is, the most engagement I had lately was on the post saying I was deleting my account. Go figure.
I still have my websites, my Patreon, Bluesky, and my newsletter list. I’m not that worried, to be frank. Let’s not forget my mostly dormant YouTube and Twitch channels as well (and Letterboxd, too!). I’m far from turning into a hermit. I dumped Twitter a few years ago, and I don’t have any regrets.
I realize too, as someone with very little engagement on Meta and not making consistent sales via them, or relying on it to drive my business, it was very easy for me to walk away. I have other artist friends who do rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram, including my wife Steph Joy Hogan, and it is a much more difficult choice. I won’t fault nor judge them for staying.
What’s Next?
I’ll be posting to Bluesky more, that’s for sure, and on Patreon. I plan on tweaking danieljhogan.com as a result. I may do the same for clattertron.com for comics after I’m done with my 31 Bad Comics challenge (this is very much TBD).
In short, I’m not that worried. The main thing I’ll miss is interacting with friends and family. I’ll probably miss Facebook Messenger more than anything for staying in touch. I could have deactivated my account and kept using Messenger, but I just wanted to be done with it all.
I’ll come right out and say I was 100% addicted to Facebook and Instagram. I can tell because I noticed big differences when I was and wasn’t using them. There’s not shortage of research saying this is very much a thing, too.
Maybe I’ll do more blogging like this again too. I don’t need, nor want, AI slop machines to write for me. I can do it myself.
