Deleting and sticking (with) it

I was looking at my phone earlier today and for some reason reflected for a moment on the fact that the only social media i have installed is Mona for Mastodon

I also have Signal and Element but those are definitely not social media to me. And yeah Signal has stories but i don´t use it.   

My Facebook account i deleted two or three years ago since it and Messenger had been unused for years. I still have a account on Instagram but about a year ago i downloaded all my content from there and emptied out my profile and removed the pictures i had uploaded since i joined back in 2011. But the process was quite seamless and it did not take more than a hour or two for me to receive the email with the link to download the export with all my content. I really should log back in and initiate the account deletion so i can be done with it for good. 

And the last one is Snapchat and this is one i have kept because i have younger relatives that still use it because their friends are all there. So this is a way for me to get updates from time to time on what is going on in their lives but i only keep it installed on a old spare phone that i only check a couple of times a week. I keep it off my main device for my own sanity and not to risk end up doom scrolling. 

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I have never been the active poster on any of my socials however they always felt like a necessary thing to have to not miss out on anything. I have previously mentioned about feeling lonely and because of that at times i have considered going back in to any of those platforms but just thinking about going back gave me a bit of a sinking feeling, a pit in the stomach and made me remember that oftentimes reading posts from people i knew(know?) just made me feel bad or sad and lead to me start comparing myself to others or to put it bluntly put myself down for not being as good, not as accomplished, not as attractive, not as well versed and the list goes on. 

I guess that is what social media grew into with all the influencers, trends and people trying to become rich and/or famous. So next up is to delete Instagram.