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Shifting Foundations

tarotstevenbright

Updated: Jan 20




As a child, I loved building sandcastles—shaping windows, turrets, and even a little moat around them—only to watch them be knocked down or washed away by the sea. As we grow older, we build our “castles” on what feels like sturdier ground, but we can never be certain how safe they truly are. This has been heartbreakingly evident in California over the past two weeks.


Closer to home, in a far less significant way, many Instagram users woke up today to find the iconic grid on their profiles had changed without warning. For those who’d carefully curated aesthetically cohesive feeds, this sudden shift left their work looking disjointed and clunky. It was a decision handed down by the powers that be—unexpected and irreversible.


To anyone familiar with Facebook, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I remember waking up to sudden layout changes there too, and almost always, the new version was worse than the one before. Platforms like Etsy have followed a similar pattern—once easy to use, now frustrating to navigate, with accounts and businesses sometimes disappearing at the company’s discretion. Years of work erased with the click of a button.


Though Instagram’s latest change hasn’t yet appeared on my own device, I’ve seen how my account looks on my partner’s phone. For now, it seems my feed hasn’t suffered as much as others—perhaps it’s even benefited slightly—but I’m not complacent. When you build on land you don’t control, the ground can shift without warning.


Lately, I’ve noticed more people leaving Instagram and Facebook—not just because of these changes, but due to Meta’s ethical controversies, the spread of misinformation, polarizing content, and failure to address harmful activity. In response, many are flocking to BlueSky, the latest alternative. But it makes me wonder: are they trading one unstable platform for another? Instagram was once a welcoming space too, but who’s to say BlueSky won’t follow the same path, becoming just another corporate asset in the long run? Money talks, after all.


We’ve seen people leave before. When Instagram became overrun with bots, scammers, and advertisers, people jumped ship to Vero, heralded as the next big thing. Yet, within months, most quietly returned to Instagram when Vero failed to live up to its promise.


As for me, while I’m enjoying Instagram right now, particularly the interactions with a small, loyal community, I don’t know what the future holds for my social media presence. Platforms like BlueSky, with their 200-character limit, don’t appeal to my style of communication. And I wonder if joining a new platform is just a case of swapping one frying pan for another. I'm not saying we shouldnt walk-our-talk and stay in alignment with our principles. I'm simply outlining the many pitfalls.


The truth is, foundations shift. What feels stable today can change tomorrow. For now, I’ll keep writing here, where I have a little more control, even if fewer people bother to read it. These days, it seems like too much effort for many to venture beyond the convenience of big social media platforms: something I feel is a great shame because there are many inspiring and creative destinations off the beaten track. But whether I decide to stay or leave, I’ll make no hard or fast decisions yet—because, as with those childhood sandcastles built on shaky footing, the whole game can change over night.


© Words and images by Steven Bright

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Hannah S-Q
Jan 28

I feel this, Steve! I keep contemplating whether or not to return to Instagram, but it’s just been harder to come back after being gone so long and it’s painful to see the changes. I do think a lot of people are feeling pretty jaded.


It’s funny! I had a dream with you in it last night, which is what led me to come comment on your blog. We were in the car together and it was a car I really hated although looking back on it, the amusing part about the car is that it was filled with a kind of shearling fuzzy fabric that you might see inside of slippers or a jacket and I was going on…

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I think that time away from social media, such as Instagram, probably helps you to see it for what it is: and, potentially, for what it is not. A lot of my friends have no social media and have a fulfilled life without it (and possibly because of it). I am in a place where my social media is more like the kind of blogging that we used to do back in the day. Even though this is all still connected to my business, what I share there is less about self-promotion and more about connection and exploration.


Hoping all is well with you, Jeremy and Pele too!

Steve

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