Why social networks?
I never liked the idea of social networks as a place to share things with friends, because it never quite made sense: we post something to share the moment with friends, but we don't have any specific recipient in mind, we just put it out there,
The idea of social network was to connect people, for us to be able to interact with friends. So when we post something, we would be sharing the event with friends, but we don't have any specific recipient in mind, so we are actually not telling it to anyone. It seems we just pick a piece of information and put in a wall with several other things there, and we expect people to look at it and acknowledge "I got the news" and maybe talk to us. We don't connect through social network, we disconnect. Instead of going to certain friends and telling them the we got a job, we broadcast and we think we communicated something. Discovering that our friend changed careers through social media is different from when they tell us specifically.
My primary social network is Instagram. I liked because it was minimalist. I used to see the work of artists around the world. I think that in that way, social networks connects, because in one place I had access to contents from different people. With time content creators started to put text on the images and things started to decline, but it was still ok, because I could consume interesting information in bite size. Brands started to come and it got even worse, because a lot of the content was to make you feel desire for products. And this scenario gets even worse when we put into account the fact that we don't have control over what we see on our feed: Instagram needs to sort which content to show to us, so we don't see everything posted, we see things that will probably make us stay more in the app.
The feed is made in a way that we consume content fast, we don't stop to appreciate, to think, to actually enjoy. There are so many things available that we feel that we are missing out. And then we try to keep up, by going there more often, but scrolling faster. It is overwhelming.
The project
The project aims to take back control over the content I consume.
At this point I follow 2350 accounts, because I have a lot of different interests:
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Artists: because I want to be inspired, I want to feel the world with other eyes, ears
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Activists (feminism, black movement, indigenous community, environmental and social issues): to get to know more about the movements, about my privileges, about history and how I can be involved
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Design and architecture: I enjoy seeing different solutions and ideas for the objects in our lives, I love seeing creativity
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Recipes: I love cooking and I like seeing other peoples creations to reproduce or use as an inspiration
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Local brands: I want to consume products from brands that are doing a job that I appreciate: being antiracists, environmental responsible, anti-speciesists, treating the employees with respect, respecting different identities...
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Science: I love understanding things deeply
No one can keep up with these many sources of content, so I have to learn to select. With fewer things, I will be able to pay more attention, to engage more, to appreciate each one more.
What I am going to do?
I am going to select the Instagram accounts which I am still interested and catalogue them here, and then stop following them there. Then, WHEN I want to consume some content, I will go to the accounts I am interested in.
But if you dislike social media, why are you still going to consume it? Because, unfortunately, some of the content I appreciate from these people are only available there.
Why this format?
I believe that this format will help me in the following ways:
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I will consume relevant content: the process of selecting the accounts to follow will make me analyse the importance of that content to me
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I will pay more attention to the content: because I am choosing to go to that source, I will be mentally available for the content and I will pay more attention
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I will avoid distractions: I won't be bombarded with multiple contents at the same time, I can focus in one at the time
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I will be more careful with the selection of sources: because I will be having to go over the list and selecting an account every time I want to consume content, it is important to not have a big list, so I will be more selective
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I won't use social media as a distraction: because my feed won't be overpopulated, I won't be going my phone all the time to check what is happening. If I am waiting for a friend to arrive, or I have free time while in the metro, I won't scroll my feed without any thoughts. I can pay attention to my surroundings, read a book, take photos, sketch, relax, breathe mindfully...
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I will engage more with friends: because I won't be seeing them on social media, I have to actively look for them to know about them in details, which will make our interactions more meaningful
Why now?
In the past year I have been dealing with depression and anxiety disorder: in loved ones and in myself. I understand everyone has a different journey towards recovery, but I feel that most of them involves some version of learning how to appreciate the present.
I believe that our way of living keeps us from paying attention to the present. The world moves too fast, we have access to too much information and content at once, we demand productivity all the time and we value products and consumption over experiences. All of this together make us rush through life with eyes in the future, without paying attention to what is happening now.
I think social networks play a big role in this scenario and I developed this project to tackle that. I am making it available here for 2 reasons:
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it is easier for me to consult whenever I want
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it can perhaps start a dialogue with other people or connect me to other ideas that can enrich or transform my point of view