Many of you have emailed to say you miss sheep pictures and videos on social media and it gives me great pause. The leo in me really misses making that content for you (I especially miss filming episodes of Homesteading Today) but the Aquarius in me loves having these moments private and not feeling obligated to pull my phone out every time something funny or beautiful happens in front of me on the farm. It is a freedom, but one with a cost; our inquiries have dropped off and my bookkeeper (my mother) keeps asking me to get instagram back.
The truth of the mater is that I had been thinking about quitting instagram since last year. I had felt in my gut it was the right thing to do for myself, but more so as a statement against what has become an out of control system of branding oneself and the dangerous formation of hyper homogenous groups of people organized around the same tastes and ideals. Everything began to look the same. Name something interesting in the world and it's turned into a fashion trend through instagram. Nature is fetishized - the occult suddenly demystified; flattened and ironed onto a flower brand, a ceramics brand, a food brand. I often fantasized about posting the most provocative, off-brand images I could find; I wanted very explicit porn, I wanted some big dick butt fucking in the Saipua feed.
Do I begrudge others for using it? No I'm often leaning over on the train to catch a glimpse of someone else's scroll. Do I think we as small (and large) business owners should consider it carefully? Absolutely. I think we have to look around and question everything right now. All the systems and institutions and modes of communication that give us business opportunities and provide ways of 'connection' also give us feelings of isolation and disillusionment -- Donald Trump, and a burning planet.
Despite talking a big game, I didn't actually have the balls to quit. I came very very close several times but in the end I was hacked, or 'phished' as they say with an official looking email from Instagram asking for my username and password in order to get 'certified' with the infamous blue tick. I couldn't come up with this sort of hilarious irony on my own.
In the stupidity of that moment - as I blindly typed in my username and password I felt some part of me knew what was happening and I perhaps thats why I wasn't upset when suddenly within seconds I was turned out into the dark alley of the faceless souls without instagram followers. I was on the farm, sitting at the kitchen table and I stood up and went outside.