Hey everyone, I’m back 👋
I feel like my recent disappearance deserves an explanation.
Back in February, I went on a cruise with my family. Since we were going to be in the middle of the ocean, and since I really didn’t want to spend $200+ on the WiFi package, I decided to challenge myself to an internet detox week. No scrolling, no posting, no checking notifications. Just being present.
Little did I know, shortly after I disembarked, my Instagram account was hacked and then permanently disabled. I didn’t find out until our first stop in Puerto Vallarta, when I finally had cell service again. My heart immediately started racing. I tried logging in over and over, hoping it was just an issue with accessing my account from a Mexican cell tower.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Because my Instagram was linked to my Facebook through Meta, the issue cascaded. Every profile and page connected to those accounts was gone. Ten years of social media content disappeared just like that.
Since I was on vacation, there was only so much I could do. I had a choice to make: let it ruin the trip, or accept that it was out of my control and focus on being present with my family.
So that is what I did.
And honestly? The cruise was amazing.
We sailed out of Long Beach and visited Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, La Paz, and Cabo San Lucas. I got to experience it all with close family, which made it even more special. I also took over 5,000 photos, and I’m excited to share some of my favorites on my portfolio website here:
https://michaelgaither.photography/mexican-cruise-2026
Managing FOMO
At first, whenever I thought about Facebook or Instagram, I felt bummed out. I had used those platforms for 10 years. They held memories, conversations, photos, pages, and little pieces of my life that I never expected to lose.
But now that I’m no longer participating on any Meta-owned social media platform, I’ve had to learn how to manage my FOMO.
After the cruise, I talked with a coworker who had purposefully deleted his social media accounts years ago because he no longer saw the point of them. He is the same age as me, so hearing his perspective really stuck with me. He talked about retraining your brain to focus on other parts of life instead of constantly checking feeds, updates, and notifications.
So I started trying to do the same.
I now have more time to watch learn from YouTube, read more chapters in the book I’m currently reading, work on photography, and be more intentional with how I spend my attention. I’ve realized it’s not really about missing Facebook or Instagram. It’s about figuring out what to do with the time I used to spend mindlessly doomscrolling.
That said, I’ll be honest: Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok can still give me that same quick dopamine hit that Facebook used to. So I’m not pretending I’ve completely escaped the pull of social media. I’m still learning how to manage it.
But maybe that’s the point.
Losing my accounts felt frustrating and unfair at first, but it also forced me into a reset I probably would not have chosen on my own. I lost a lot of old content, but I gained a new perspective on how much time and attention I was giving away.
So this is a new beginning.
Less scrolling. More creating. More reading. More photography. More being present.
And hopefully, a little less FOMO.