Like many, I struggle spending too much time on social media. It's easy to make excuses for it - I learn much on social media. I've intentionally diversified my feeds so I am exposed to new viewpoints and movements and news I wouldn't get elsewhere. I've become good friends with several folks through social media and enriched relationships with acquaintances. My friends and family provide encouragement and connection through social media.

However, because of all that, it's easy to forget that Instagram is not real life. It is curated snapshots of a moment. And conversations begun there must continue off-screen. Advocacy and allyship displayed there must be enacted in our actual offline communities. Yelling into an echo chamber (or posting a meme into an echo chamber) doesn't make any change, and often warps our perception of reality.

So I've decided to be more of a guest on Instagram. It's somewhere I'll drop by and say hello, but I won't live there. I still intend to post my happenings and family's milestones (partially because at the end of each year I get an album printed of my Instagram posts, which are the only photo albums we really have). I've set a limit on the amount of time each day I will use the app, and it won't be enough time to get through everything I want to see. But that is okay.

Instagram is abundance - it is always there with more and more photos and information and funny memes. The app is designed as if there is a scarcity (“needing” to view stories before they disappear, the fear of missing something), but it is the opposite.

So I hope to see you there when I drop in, but if we don't, I hope to connect by other means.