A fellow human asked: I was [...] wondering how do you manage having an instagram account? Don’t you find it difficult to not waste your time mindlessly scrolling or constantly checking your app? Do you consume any youtube videos? Or other social media platforms? Do you think you have a healthy balance with your digital consumption?
I found these questions very thought-provoking and felt deep gratitude for them. Digital consumption is one of the topics I usually don't talk much about, perhaps because it has never been a big part of my life. Yet, digital consumption is something that I have been thinking about for a long time. I've never reflected on it systematically, so my contemplation will not be systematic, but I will try to gather many of my thoughts in the same place, right here.
I grew up without social media. When I was growing up, smartphones were not yet a thing. Fellow humans seemed more mindful when taking, storing, and sharing pictures. Communications somehow felt more intentional. At times, I even wrote physical letters to my fellow humans, such as my stepdad, my friends, and my grandmother. Social media and smartphones began to invade humans' days when I was approaching the end of my school years. I consider myself lucky and I'm grateful to the universe that I was born in the world without social media. It never feels like an integral part of my life, and I believe I could happily live without social media.
Yet, I use some social media platforms. I use Instagram. I began to use it to share this autoethnography with more fellow humans. To show that there are other ways to live and relate with the world. In this sense, my account accompanies this autoethnography. On Instagram, I don't have many fellow humans "following" (this word feels so wrong) me. This is good, as it means there are not many comments and questions to read. If I had more fellow humans "following" me, I would struggle to answer the questions deeply, to thank fellow humans intentionally rather than in a tokenistic manner. Many of those fellow humans are also practitioners of an alternative lifestyle, or some specific practices and their constellations. Or, they are simply curious about living differently. Some of those fellow humans are my friends and colleagues. On Instagram, apart from sharing, I learn from my fellow practitioners' experiences. I follow very few fellow humans and certainly avoid scrolling (the Home tab). I also look up some local businesses. For example, there was a local pizza place that closed down. They mentioned they would re-open, and at times I take a look at their Instagram page to see if they have re-opened. I don't follow any accounts that would encourage consumption. I don't feel that I would be affected by this encouragement to consume, but I don't want to support them at all and spend my energy in such spaces. Yet, at times I feel that I should take a look, at least every now and then, as a social scientist, to avoid living in a bubble. Otherwise, there is a risk to downplay the power of marketing and social media.
I used to have a Facebook account. Once I registered there many years ago to create a local group where we could discuss an alternative way of living. But it didn't work our for me in the long term. I felt that some voices were heard more than others. I deleted that Facebook account. Then, in some years, I registered again to be part of a research group. When I moved to Finland, that research group was no longer as relevant for me. I had only 2 friends with whom I could connect via other channels. So I deleted that account too. I think that for some communities some digital space could work well to organise for sustainability. E.g., to establish a "buy nothing" group, to share resources. Here where I live we have several byttestationer (swap shops), including one in the recycling area of our block of flats. This is wonderful, as it's not mediated by any social media platform.
My partner invited me to watch a fellow human who is interested in philosophy on YouTube, and we've seen a few videos together. We use philosophy in our works, so it's interesting to see how a fellow human approaches philosophy. At times, we watch our colleagues' videos (when they do a talk we are interested in and it's recorded). Or other practitioners' videos. But I'm not subscribed to any channels and don't "follow" persons on YouTube.
I'm on LinkedIn too. To me, LinkedIn often feels generally more toxic than Instagram. Perhaps this is because I use Instagram only for certain purposes (to share small parts of my autoethnography, answer fellow humans' questions, find information about small, local, independent businesses). I use LinkedIn to share some information about my talks/lectures and new publications. I feel that my use of LinkedIn is just right. On LinkedIn, I avoid the Home tab as much as possible. At times, my colleagues and I send messages to each other on LinkedIn, especially when it's something short (e.g., a link to a zoom call).
I am also on ResearchGate. It's a platform for researchers to share their research. My feeling is that it is becoming less relevant, though it was also good to share some research with my fellow humans. Generally, my research is either publicly available, or fellow humans simply email me and ask for it.
I have a Google Scholar profile. It's just a profile where all my publications (and metrics for those interested in them) are gathered in one place.
I use a texting app with my close friends and family too, but I'm not in any groups. I usually do not keep messages. I delete them every now and then. Generally, I prefer to talk in person.
Perhaps I could use Instagram and LinkedIn less, but it doesn't feel overwhelming. Somehow, it also feels important to transform such spaces rather than to leave them entirely (though this is also a good thing to do, if a person feels overwhelmed or feels encouraged to consume, or compares themselves to others). For example, Instagram is so full of accounts promoting a lifestyle of overconsumption. It feels good to know that there are persons who practise underconsumption, extreme minimalism, frugality, simple living, slow living and so on, too. As for LinkedIn, it feels good to post somewhat rarely and avoid being the person who brags about achievements,
One part of my digital consumption that felt unhealthy and overwhelming to me was reading news online. I stopped doing it completely. This is a whole different (and difficult!) topic though.
At times, my fellow humans say to me that I should delete Instagram if I practise extreme minimalism. At this moment, I feel that it's probably best to share my alternative lifestyle on this platform, to follow few fellow humans, and post only what feels important. I certainly spend much more time on this autoethnography. If my fellow humans were reading this autoethnography, I would probably delete Instagram. But in my autoethnography, my entries are somewhat long (they are my data rather than blog posts), and it would be time-consuming for fellow humans to read these entries. I also disabled comments. This is because I set up this page for research transparency reasons (I use this as my data for my autoethnographic study). I link this page to my academics articles. Because I don't mention names here, I would not want my fellow humans posting comments that reveal their names (they can email me instead).
Apart from the platforms I mentioned above, I am not part of my platform, online forum, or a messaging app.
