January 2025

What a year, already. January brought us a glimpse of what the world will be in the next years and mentally my urge to disappear into the woods is stronger than ever. This month has shown us how fast things can get worse when fascists take over and how fragile businesses can be if they depend 100% on the grace of a single social media platform.

By adopting the fascist policies of Musk and the newly elected President of the United States, Zuckerberg has put a loaded gun to the chest of every democratically minded Meta user. Calculative as he is, he focused his speech on the removal of fact-checkers in the US, which made the real changes disappear: opening the floodgates to hate speech by removing protections for marginalised groups - explicitly women, LGBTQ and immigrants - and installing fascists in senior management.

I have spent far too much time on social media during these days trying to work out what consequences I should take. But deep down in my heart I already knew that I would quit. I have never been a fan of Meta and their anti-privacy behaviour. Nor are their products really any good. To sort things out in my head I needed to write a long blog post about what will actually happen when I leave Meta:

What will happen when I leave Meta and its platforms

Meta’s turn towards hate & fascism will have an impact on all its platforms. What will happen if I leave their services as a wedding photographer?

Sturmsucht | BlogChris | Sturmsucht

And the result was: there are no benefits to staying that have passed the reality check.

But talking to friends and colleagues was so sobering. "Yes, it's bad", "We'll have to see what happens", "Luckily these changes don't apply to Europe" - with no action taken. People tend to avoid the core question: stay and tolerate fascism - or leave.

There is a huge lack of knowledge, and Meta and its promises have become such an integral part of their lives and businesses that they can't imagine living without it. I had to remind myself that the majority of wedding photographers in my circles actually never experienced a world without Facebook and Instagram. Financial livelihoods have been built on these platforms. Leaving them brings existential fear. I can totally understand if they struggle to leave. I have no understanding if they don't care about Meta's shift to fascism. Let's at least take it as a wake-up call and make ourselves and our businesses less dependent on social media.

Being outside the US won't save us from the fascist management of the world's biggest social media platform. The fact-checkers may stay for a few more months, but the hateful speech policy change has been rolled out internationally. American haters won't be banned in the EU. They're not even the worst. Far worse is that Meta will start suppressing content that doesn't literally agree with their political views. It's the manipulation of public perception.

Some of my colleagues say they want to stay on Meta and be the light for their customers. Try it, but you can't be the rainbow flag in the nazi bar. Especially as the bar now won't show you around anymore.

In recent weeks I've already seen an increase in far-right content on Instagram, from US standup comedy of a white girl doing racist jokes about black people in slavery, to political content from German fascist youth organisations. You won't be able to escape that on Meta. If you want to see where this is going just take a look at X/Twitter.

But there are alternatives. Even groundbreaking alternatives when it comes to the way social media platforms could work (open, decentralised, interoperable. Yes, the Fediverse), but you have to take a step back and relearn real human connections. You're not going to be fed recommendations that trigger an emotional response, or ads based on decades of monitoring your online interests. You need to interact and show interest again. And you will be rewarded with new great connections, support, maybe friends, but definitely real people who really care about what you do and say.

Turning to the good sides of January

I had a wonderful, highly motivated start into the new year and managed to stay energised throughout the month, tackling the things on my transitional masterplan. Of course, things are taking longer than expected, but consistency is key here and somehow I managed to keep it up.

January was the first month since a while where I had the feeling to actually create something for the future again. Not just throwing spaghetti pictures at an Instagram wall to see what the algorithm likes to catch.

Fediverse

I'm really happy with how my Fediverse activity is taking off and to see my Pixelfed account (Fedi's alternative to Instagram) rapidly growing to already a third of my years of Instagram followers within one month. Real people that will see all my content in their chronological, algorithm- and ad-free timeline.

The Fediverse is a good place with good-hearted people who want to make things better in the world. It's a place to create, not just consume. And it has brought back my joy in doing so, which years of walled-garden social media had destroyed before.

Blogging

I started blogging again which already feels great (even though I have to write about fascism these days) and is an excellent way to show up for an introvert like me. My list of future topics is filling and I can't wait for the upcoming Ghost version 6.0 with their fantastic Fediverse integration. Finally a wonderful opportunity to really stay connected and interact with my audience on the long run.

Website

But most of the work these days is going into my website to make it the base and the one true place where everything comes together. It is the only place I can really control, and as January has shown, everything else should not be taken for granted.

Deleting WhatsApp and private Instagram

Last but not least: by the end of January I finally deleted my WhatsApp and the last two private Instagram accounts (devasdaughters for portraits and chris.zielecki for landscapes). The journey is not over yet as there is one last big thing open: my business Instagram account for Sturmsucht.de.

So, how am I going to proceed with @sturmsucht on IG? That's the thing I want to figure out in February. Certain is: I won't continue using it.
That being said, there are 3 options possible:

1. Let it rot
2. Deactivate it to prevent account hijacking
3. Delete it completely

Let's see where I end up by the end of the month. Deleting my WhatsApp account felt already sparked joy and by doing so I updated all footers, signatures and profiles on other platforms to stop pointing to Meta anymore. Instead I created a social media and messenger page on my website with current accounts around the web. Gee, what a month.

Summary of January

Despite all the drama in the world and the indirect impact on my business, I feel that things are slowly starting to connect with what I want Sturmsucht to be in the future. I'm happy to have found some great inspiration outside of my industry bubble and it seems that the end of my 2 year long search for my true identity is finally coming to an end this year.