{"id":12283,"date":"2025-11-26T11:53:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leehopkins.com\/goodbye-to-the-shitty-end-of-social-media\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:53:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:23:42","slug":"goodbye-to-the-shitty-end-of-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leehopkins.com\/vi\/goodbye-to-the-shitty-end-of-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to the shitty end of social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"goodbye\"<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b(or: why I\u2019m climbing out of the enshittification pool before the lifeguard turns the lights off)<\/em><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve reached that particular age, temperament, and neurotype where spending another minute doom-scrolling, rage-scrolling, or politely-pretending-to-be-interested-scrolling feels like stabbing my prefrontal cortex with a compost fork. So, after years of good intentions, bad platforms, and one too many algorithmic betrayals, I am stepping away from the shitty end of social media.<\/p>\n

Not deleting. Not flouncing. Not seeking applause.<\/p>\n

Just leaving the accounts alive, embalmed in their own corporate formaldehyde, while I redirect my attention towards places that feel like actual human spaces rather than behavioural-modification farms.<\/p>\n

This is my farewell letter to Meta, X, and Spotify, and my love-letter to Substack, YouTube, and books.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a note to my fellow AuDHD brains who keep telling themselves I should be better at this<\/em>, when the truth is simpler: you\u2019re not broken. The platforms are.<\/p>\n

Why the great unfollow happened<\/h2>\n

There was a time when social media felt hopeful. A time before the algorithms were weaponised, before engagement meant incitement, before everything became a dopamine casino where the house always wins and the punter always leaves feeling slightly worse about their life.<\/p>\n

Then came the era we now politely refer to as enshittification<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A perfect word. Evocative. Accurate. A full systems-theory explanation disguised as a punchline.<\/p>\n

Enshittification happens when a platform stops serving users and starts squeezing them. When the business model optimises for shareholder extraction instead of community value. When features vanish, ads multiply, trust evaporates, and the whole thing begins to smell like something died behind the fridge.<\/p>\n

I was in the vanguard of social media for business, back when social media first started to get public attention. This was 2005 onwards. By 2009 I was being flown all over the world to lecture, to present, to run workshops on how social media was an incredibly powerful tool that businesses needed to get across. I was a true evangelist. I stayed longer than I should have.<\/p>\n

Partly out of habit.<\/p>\n

Partly out of misplaced hope.<\/p>\n

Partly out of that old autistic loyalty reflex that whispers, Maybe it will improve if I am very patient and very reasonable<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s where we part ways.<\/p>\n

The ethical crimes I can no longer pretend to ignore<\/h2>\n

And yes, crimes may sound dramatic.<\/p>\n

But if a company behaves like a moral sewer, the least we can do is name the smell.<\/p>\n

Meta (Facebook + Instagram)<\/strong><\/p>\n