The Unen-Gram-ined Life

... is in fact worth living.

Two years ago, one of my favorite climbing partners inspired me to quit Instagram and Facebook. (Against all odds, this person is a Gen-Z vandweller based out of Moab).

I took the plunge and locked myself out of both platforms right before embarking on a four-month road trip. I was worried that I would have a hard time staying in touch with people.

Instead, I found that I was more fully present at each destination, and my long-distance communication was more meaningful. When the trip ended, I stayed off socials, and was delighted by how much extra time and productivity I had on my hands when my thumbs weren't perpetually occupied.

Also, I feel like my enjoyment of climbing is much greater without the terminate-and-stay-residents of "how will I post this?" taking up my system resources. In addition, climbing content on social media sees like such a commercialized hashtag hype machine. I find it disheartening to see climbing commodified in such an expedient way. (To the extent that I have contributed to that, I regret it).

I'm not here to judge people who consume and create social media in any form. I just found that it was detrimental to me and made it harder to enjoy climbing for its own sake. And of course, I recognize that MP can hit me in the same way sometimes, but it's been way more of an overall net positive for me in the past thirteen years than Facebook ever was.

So, I wanted to create a space for any other climbers who are undertaking a similar journey. How has limiting or quitting social media affected you, especially as regards your relationship to climbing? 

+1

I quit my two socials (fb & insta) back in 2020 during the pandemic. There was a week when I  noticed several separate incidents of boredom in which I would quickly turn to the socials for entertainment. It felt like I was kinda addicted in a way, iso more likes or feeling pressure into posting more pics/stories in order to get more attention.

Well enough was enough, I quit. I thought ‘what a waste of time’. I got back into reading more and playing my uke. I was fortunate enough to have a good job and live near the Tetons. National Forest trails remained open for hiking, biking and some climbing. Targhee, my local ski resort left its NF gates open for locals to go touring. That was very special to me and it allowed me to get better at backcountry touring. Imagine you got this entire ski resort around, with maybe 10 other skiers. It was awesome, I was skiing well into June that year and I felt pretty fortunate to live in that area during that time. Quitting the socials and maximizing time outside allowed me to disconnect from the crazy times we were all living in during the pandemic.

Probably one of the better decisions I’ve made in the last five years. Great post Fritz, always enjoy your stuff here.

And I also understand why people enjoy using it or use it for work. It could be a great tool for a lot of people - just not me. But of course the addiction is real and I think limiting time is wise for everyone, especially our younger generation. 

Chad Namolik wrote:

iso more likes or feeling pressure into posting more pics/stories in order to get more attention.

Totally the same here. I know I have a deeply-ingrained tendency to people-please and seek external validation. For both, the platforms easily deliver a mainline instead of a microdose of self-aggrandizement.

There are some famous climbers who do a great job posting content in a way that doesn't focus all the attention back on them, but it kind of seems like that's the outlier, given the nature of the medium and the social climate of the outdoor industry. 

Forums can deliver that ability to self-promote or otherwise encourage bad behaviour, but it is greatly lessened by the fact that content is chronologically ordered, and there's no algorithm to determine what to show you.

A lot of content on Instagram can be good, but it's mentally taxing to "play the game", so to speak. Both in wading through the content and needing to create your own to succeed. I choose not to play the game.

F r i t z wrote:

... is in fact worth living.

 When the trip ended, I stayed off socials, and was delighted by how much extra time and productivity I had on my hands when my thumbs weren't perpetually occupied.

Scary to read that.  The waste of time you describe is similar to that caused by excessive alcohol or drug consumption.  Life feels normal but nothing gets done because there is no time.  Total time warp and waste.  

So, I wanted to create a space for any other climbers who are undertaking a similar journey.

You created a thread in a social media about how to stop using social media?  

F r i t z wrote:

... is in fact worth living.

Two years ago, one of my favorite climbing partners inspired me to quit Instagram and Facebook. (Against all odds, this person is a Gen-Z vandweller based out of Moab).

I took the plunge and locked myself out of both platforms right before embarking on a four-month road trip. I was worried that I would have a hard time staying in touch with people.

Instead, I found that I was more fully present at each destination, and my long-distance communication was more meaningful. When the trip ended, I stayed off socials, and was delighted by how much extra time and productivity I had on my hands when my thumbs weren't perpetually occupied.

Also, I feel like my enjoyment of climbing is much greater without the terminate-and-stay-residents of "how will I post this?" taking up my system resources. In addition, climbing content on social media sees like such a commercialized hashtag hype machine. I find it disheartening to see climbing commodified in such an expedient way. (To the extent that I have contributed to that, I regret it).

I'm not here to judge people who consume and create social media in any form. I just found that it was detrimental to me and made it harder to enjoy climbing for its own sake. And of course, I recognize that MP can hit me in the same way sometimes, but it's been way more of an overall net positive for me in the past thirteen years than Facebook ever was.

So, I wanted to create a space for any other climbers who are undertaking a similar journey. How has limiting or quitting social media affected you, especially as regards your relationship to climbing? 

Good for you man.  I did the same thing in 2020 as I watched friends and family throw logic, reason, and rationality out the window, completely unaware that's what they were doing.  Much happier now.  I always kind of had it in the back of my mind that my main purpose for it was a craving for attention and pushed that thought down, way down until I got rid of it- because it's unflattering to say the least.  Once I got rid of everything (for the hair-splitters, I don't consider anything that can give you notifications to be social media, I consider algorithmically pushed "news feeds" to be true social media- you know the type that drive engagement by feeding you primarily that which you detest or that with which you agree 100%- to drive longer engagement times) I didn't gain back that much time, because I wasn't completely overtaken by it, but I had a huge boost in mental wellness.  It's my wish, although a longshot, that a critical mass of people would also disengage from it because from where I sit, the excuse of "I only use it to stay in touch with friends and family", which is mostly bullshit, isn't enough to counteract the damage that it's doing, particularly to the youngest generation, most of whom have been on it since middle school/adolescence.  

Haven’t used social media in a decade. Once off, I found that I call friends and have much longer in depth conversations, which I’m not one to talk on the phone for much longer than 5 minutes. In these instances though the conversations often got over an hour and the friendships feel much more alive, even though very distance geographically.

Never used social media for climbing related stuff. Iv never drawn parallels between myself and others in climbing but can see the how the “ Gram factor” or “ likes collector” can drive someone to post or to compare accomplishments.

One of the best thing I did for my relationship with climbing was, dare I say, climb less!

F r i t z wrote:

I took the plunge and locked myself out of both platforms...

Is there a function within instagram or facebook to actually lock yourself out?

Max Tepfer wrote:

Is there a function within instagram or facebook to actually lock yourself out?

No, Meta tries its hardest to keep you inside the cave. Even if you delete your account, they preserve it so that you can rejoin with little effort.

I started by taking a one-month break from socials as a trial run. That went well, so I downloaded all my photos and posts as a zip file, because I have a fair amount of personal history on there since 2007 (back when you needed a .edu email addy to register!).

Then I had a "sober sitter" change my password and change my account contact info to his email. I logged out for the last time, and the trip begun ...

MP is the closest I get to socials now. Even though it has a like button, it's still a Web 1.0 tech for the reasons listed above. Still capable of being a timesuck, but way more positive externalities as I look back on my years of participation in the forum. 

Two years totally off socials. I used the browser mode for a while to ween myself off a bit until I went totally cold turkey one day. I was chatting with a friend a month ago about it and how surprisingly easy it was to leave all behind… fast forward to yesterday and I guess he did the same and doesn’t miss it either. I’d encourage everyone to get off and see how much free time you suddenly have…

Cherokee Nunes wrote:

You created a thread in a social media about how to stop using social media?  

Addiction is a beast but all in your mind so quite possibly it's not real