Social media thrives on the illusion of its necessity

Plus an invite to the Escape Pod session

Is it beyond comprehension that people at social media companies think of ways to make us dependent on their services? Could they actively be building a narrative that your participation is necessary?

First, consider the bait and switch: They got all of us to set up our profile pages for free and rewarded us with tons of views and likes. Eventually, we abandoned our websites, blogs, and email lists, and then they throttled our reach unless we paid to boost our posts or spent more time on their platform, uploading an un-ending stream of “content.”

Second, even if you don’t use their platforms to promote anything, you likely fell for the DM functionality to keep in touch with friends and family. But what if you get locked out of your account? What if your friend gets their account suspended for some random reason? What happens when one of your parents gets scammed and can’t log in?

If you lose touch with people you care about, you’ll figure out how to reestablish the connection quickly, usually by phone, text, or email—three pre-installed apps on every smartphone.

Remember - many people are paid well to keep you locked into their ecosystem. Escaping the world of social media ain’t easy, but that’s what Social Media Escape Club is here for.

I’ll be leading a discussion about deleting social media apps in the next ESCAPE POD, my video chat series with subscribers.

It’s this Wednesday, May 22nd, from 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT (so the West Coast folks can join for once). If you can’t make it, there will be a recording.

​The first 30 minutes will be open to all guests, and the last 30 minutes will be open for Q&A only for paid subscribers.

I won’t be telling you to burn your social media accounts and throw away your smartphones, but as I said earlier this year, “maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.”

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I’m Seth Werkheiser. Curious if you could ever live without social media or want to know how to get started writing a newsletter? Check out my About page to see how I can help.

One last time sharing this full replay again from the ‘Social Media Support for Artists’ that I did with Beth Spencer.

This was a live event for Paid Subscribers. We’re already planning another in the next few months, so become a paid subscriber to the Social Media Escape Club (or Introvert Drawing Club) so you can be a part of it!