Staying connected

I don’t visit Facebook much, but I do occasionally check in. Late last night, after working on a typeface, I randomly decided to log into Facebook. I was startled to find out that a person I knew in college died unexpectedly. I was concerned about a friend and Lutheran pastor resigned from his call after 17 years. And I was happy to learn that a friend and her children saw my daughter at the camp she works at. And then, I was overwhelmed with ads and sponsored posts.

I haven’t had the Facebook app on my phone for six or seven years and I’ve maintained my Instagram pause since May. The side effect of focusing on more independent social media, though, is that I am detached from friends who are only on mainstream platforms. While I love Micro.Blog and Bluesky,1 most of the people I know in real life just aren’t active there. The reality is that I can’t completely leave Facebook and Instagram without losing connections to my friends and family.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

  1. I use Threads regularly, but I don’t love Threads. ↩︎

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