FAKE RONJAN!!Ronjan’s “Meta Unraveled”
Today, I did it again. I nuked my Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts to reduce my social media usage.
Social media has held varying levels of importance in my life over the past two decades.
Facebook was there for me when friends passed away. It was a way to connect with friends, classmates, and colleagues. It was there during some of the most exciting and most devastating political outcomes of my lifetime. Instagram was a delightful place to share photos with friends. See how everyone’s kids were growing up. How their vacations were going. It was great.
Both platforms were also places I spent more time than I’d like to admit. Places where I got riled up by algorithmically targeted content. Places I quit multiple times over before inevitably re-joining. Meta was a place I vowed I’d never work for before I took a life-changing job offer. A place that laid me off 15 months later.
Today, I watched Can’t Look Away and decided it was time to walk away again. These platforms just seem to be net negatives for society, and I want to do my part in modeling healthy behavior for my middle-schooler son. (I also deleted Snapchat and TikTok today.)
We’ll see if it lasts this time. I hope it does.
Before deleting my accounts each time, I downloaded all of my data. Because I’m a nerd, I asked Claude to stitch it all together into a summary so I could see my full history with Meta’s platforms. Because I’m a super-nerd, I’m publishing it here for posterity. If you’re a nerd, I hope you enjoy it and get inspired to check your own history!
Month-by-month posting history
Yearly totals
Facebook posts cover the main timeline, friends' walls, and groups. Comments are counted separately.
Platform shift
Photo and video sharing
Includes profile and cover photos. Each photo in a multi-photo post counts separately. Cross-posts count once. Photos sent in messages are excluded.
Posts with a photo or video
Share of each year's posts with at least one photo or video. Instagram items always carry one. Link previews don't count.
Weekday and weekend posting times
Share of each group's posts by hour in Eastern time across all years. Weekdays are Monday through Friday.
Creating vs. consuming
Likes given per post
Likes and reactions given on other people's posts and comments divided by posts, stories, reels, and threads. Comments count in neither. Years under 30 posts are excluded.