Latergram.

We are deleting our Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Frankly it’s been a long time coming for each of these, given not only Zuckerberg’s stances on data privacy (precisely nil), artificial “intelligence,” rage as a tool for increased engagement (and thus more shareholder bucks), etcetera etcetera, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. But now, they’ve literally put in writing that it’s fine to bully queer people for existing.

This moderation shift (to say nothing of the continued enshitification of other platforms) has been framed in many ways. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, “less political” somehow (??) and what have you. But it’s none of those really. It extends beyond the borders of the internet, and it’s a shift that aligns with a blind, belligerent hatred becoming ever more fashionable in the United States.

We won’t presume to tell you how to live your lives online. There are so few user-friendly alternatives to the massive social media conglomerates that often we’re afraid we’ll lose track of our family, our friends, our loved ones. Some of us rely on those platforms to promote our art and our music and our wares, to network and ultimately earn an income, as is dictated by the capitalistic society we find ourselves in. We have held out for as long as we have, for exactly those reasons.

But this year, we’re greatly looking forward to unplugging. Not from everything, but from a lot. We have been prepping behind the scenes to show and sell our art in public spaces, and we’re excited for the future. We’re excited to stand in front of folks and look them in the eye. We’re excited to connect in an organic and human way that doesn’t involve pleading with an algorithm that will never care beyond some superficial amount of clicks or engagement or whatever the fuck it measures. (I don’t know, and at this point I don’t care to learn.)

Our art has never been about views, likes, retweets, reposts or digital impressions; our art is about connection. A transference of ideas, of fun, of questions and life and liveliness, of energy and excitement, and “woah that’s cool!” We want to make things that bring you joy, that speak to you, that make you excited to see it and glad you were alive to look at it.

It’s getting harder and harder to be glad that you logged onto anything, these days.

That’s why we’re logging off.