#goodbyesocialmedia

Friday 2nd January 2026

Ahhh Tumblr. I've spent many years returning and leaving and returning again, not quite finding a purpose for existing in this space. But maybe today, the 2nd January 2026, I've found a reason.

Yesterday I decided to take a break from social media. I'm an elder millennial that grew up with the rise of mainstream Internet. The early days of Yahoo Chats rooms, that lead to using Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. The beautiful introduction of MySpace and its ability to personalise our pages with backgrounds and music. The growing popularity of Facebook which I was originally forced to use against my will because most of my close friends used that but I eventually got addicted to because I used it like a diary to record all the places I would go and hold all the photos and albums of my life! And then came Instagram which was my safe space. It was a place that many of my friends didn't follow me on and I was able to curate to only things I was interested in like musicians, comedians, theatre, football, events in Melbourne, bars and restaurants in Melbourne, plus size influencers, feminists and general news and politics. I was also much more open and turn to myself because I knew that most of the people/pages that followed me, didn't know me personally (more on that mindset in a later post).

But the world of social media has changed so much over the past 20 years. And is has turned into quite a toxic and hateful space. But that's a reflection on humanity really isn't it? People seem to have no problem writing horrible comments in the guise of "voicing their opinions", sharing their hate for things and people and just being outright mean.

I can't even follow the pages I love without seen these kind of comments on them. I can't see some beautiful plus size people existing without the comments being filled with derogatory comments about being fat and ugly while pretending to care about their health. I can't see amazing strong feminists without misogynistic and violent comments. I can't see the good work of some progressive politicians and activists without seeming racists and bigotry comments.

I made the decision to start distancing myself from social media through Facebook first. The pandemic brought the worst out of people. I took a 6 month break in 2020 and then I realised that wasn't as hard as I thought. The occasional visits back in Facebook land confirmed why I wanted to leave in the first place so I have barely use Facebook over the past few years.

I have always used social media as a diary though. I don't write and post for other people, I do it for myself. I was always a diary keeper as a child and teenager and even as a 44 year women now, I still love to write. The thought of not having a space to do that really saddens me, but I also know social media really impacts my mental health. The addiction is real though. FOMO and the need to be up to date on everything really takes up so much time but also can feel so overwhelming.

So yesterday, I turned off all my notifications. I've removed the Facebook app off my phone complete. I've signed up to newsletters for a lot of the pages I follow and set up browser tabs so there is more of a conscious effort to look up information. And the big one is that I've reset my algorithm, so clean slate! The plan is to not really use Instagram at all and thus not feeding the new algorithm but that will be a slow withdrawal as I tweak the process.

But you may being thinking... um... you're on Tumblr. Ahhh yes, technically. Here lies the MASTER PLAN. Tumblr is more of a one way communication tool for me. I have no real plans to follow other pages although I do enjoy a good read some writers and bloggers here may be fun to follow. As per my page name this will be the DIARY OF A NOBODY (I'll explain the nobody part on another post). I love to write and I love to record my thoughts and muses so maybe blogging might be a better space for me... less distracting? We'll see how this goes.