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	---------------------------------------- The effects of deleting a social medium March 06th, 2020 ---------------------------------------- I recently removed the Instagram app from my phone. (pause for applause). This is not a statement about the evils of social media, or the objectification of ketogenic foods, or whatever else you might be guessing. It's about time. I removed the app because of the little magnifying-glass button next to the home feed. There was a tendency for me to fill my time by looking at random pictures Instagram thought relevant to me. This was really easy for their algorithm to game and optimize. Very quickly I had an endless scroll of "neat" stuff, and that was sucking up way too much of my time without any tangible reward. I like my own instagram feed. Seeing photos from friends and places that interest me is cool and relatively quick to consume. I don't need to read much and I can "catch up" quickly in a linear timeline. If there were a way to disable that little magnifier icon the app would still be on my phone. I've since started posting pictures on pixelfed [0]. There's not much to that app except the posting of pictures, so the temptation to check it at other times is gone. When I post something I give the feed a quick scroll to see if anything new is there, and then I'm done. Easy!
	[0] pixelfed
	Even so, in the days following the Instagram change I went through the usual withdrawl. I ended up closing and opening mastodon again several times in a row as my hands tried to fill the habit with the available tools. Now several days in I'm no longer in that habitual loop and I've begun reclaiming my time [1].
	[1] Reclaiming my time
	The first effect is my improved patience with long-form content. I've been catching up on phlogs & blogs (RSS) more readily. That was unexpected but appreciated. It makes me wonder about the implications too. If cutting out one small habit that involved short attention-span cycling has such a major effect on my overall patience, how crippled is my current state? If I cut out Mastodon and even IRC, would that attention continue to grow? How fast? This might warrant some experimentation. Another effect is a diminishing of the value of my phone. I haven't ceased using it and there are plenty of other apps that hold my attention for lengthy periods. Still, the change has been tangible. Again, further experimentation is needed. I know this community is filled with folks who have gone through similar changes. What's your experience with cutting out a social platform? Has it remained cut out? Do you still see the tangibles in your life, or did those fade to some sort of "rest state"? Were there notable negatives?