As I committed to myself and anyone who bothered actually reading the content of my posts about the matter in either sphere, I killed my Instagram and Facebook accounts tonight. A couple of days earlier than some might expect, but my only commitment to everyone was that the accounts would cease to exist in the waning days and hours of 2025. Reach out if you want to stay in contact, I said.
If I was expecting a flood of people saying “don’t leave us!” (I wasn’t), I might have been disappointed in the response. I was expecting nothing and got a trickle instead, so I count those few blessings.
I am left with the overall opinion: Good riddance.
A few folks reached out (or I, to them) and we agreed to keep in contact, but I am actually doubtful that any but one or two will follow through, even if I initiate the process myself. The idea is a grand one, but in my experience, few people follow through on maintaining those kinds of relationships. Maybe I’m just not relationship-keeping material? Men and women that I was close to at one time seem to have moved on from our formerly tight friendships. Or maybe I am no good at playing the social games anymore. Maybe I never was very good at it and they humored me. I tend to lean towards the latter, in all honesty. I really don’t know.
Those two sites are now in the rearview mirror, as are the people still lingering there. For all of the change you could expect out of people, some as many as 40 years past, it is surprising just how many people are still living pretty much unchanged from when I saw them on a more frequent basis. Maybe we don’t change over time as much as we like to believe… Maybe that is a myth we cling to, and it is only the backdrops that have moved on?
I know I sound bitter in this post, but I promise that I am not. I’m just considering these things with a critical eye, mostly to try and comprehend what I failed to understand about interpersonal communications throughout the years. I’ve made mistakes and showed poor judgment my fair share of the time, but I have always tried to be a stand-up kind of person who could be relied upon. You know: good friend material. But none of it ever seems to have staying power.
Maybe I’ve just chosen the wrong people to be friends with.
And, if I’m being generous to myself (which does not come easy by a long shot), maybe that was the problem all along.
As I said, I have exercised poor judgment in the past, and that might be my biggest critical flaw. Perhaps I will show more wisdom in the future. Perhaps the backdrop will not be the only thing to change.
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