My relationship with social media is a little different than most peoples’. I realized this during a late-night chat with my girlfriend about how much we hate Instagram. She had a lot of valid reasons for hating it (Instagram enables bad habits, causes insecurities, invites comparisons etc). Meanwhile, for me, I just hate it because it gives me dumb AI advertisements. So yeah, we have somewhat different perspectives.
Instagram was my first social media (My account is eight years old now!) and still my primary one. I love posting pictures more than anything, and it’s nice to see what my friends are up to. Those two things are just about the only reason I keep it. If I could do either one IRL, I’d delete the app altogether.
While I’m no stranger to comparing myself to others, or to the dopamine hit from a like, I can get plenty of those elsewhere. I also get dopamine from hitting a key on my keyboard (Like right now!) and from sticking a q-tip in my ear. I still don’t consider either of them major issues in my life… At least for now. And while I’ve had lots of insecurities, my Instagram is highly curated towards cats and shitposts and other delightful things that make me happy. Nothing to compare myself to there!
But yeah the AI-generated ads are getting out of control. Allow me to explain: There are at least 20 million brands on Instagram. I have blocked 2,000+ since high school. The purpose of this was born from wanting to see sillier ads, but my scorn of major corporations has helped it. Nowadays, half my sponsored posts are shitcoins or AI-generated products with big stupid smiling faces. It has sucked all the whimsy out of my little game.
The ad-blocking habit has become an ad-blocking lifestyle. I am a body made of hatred and that evil capitalist pig Zuckerberg is my enemy. I will block every business even if it takes me till the day I die. So yeah I guess that’s what my relationship with social media is like.