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The parties, the selfies, the beaches and, oh, yeah, the art.
But some artists have chosen to opt out, as best they can, from web 2.0 self mythologization.
Theyve decided to delete Instagram.
There is a long tradition of artists refusing to play the self-promotion game.
As one recent art school graduate put it to me, Instagram has reached the level of infrastructure.
But artists are starting to feel that its just become an addiction, devouring their creativity.
Brad Phillipsis in many ways the poster boy for why artistsshouldbe on Instagram.
He even met his wife, artistCristine Brache, on the app.
I dont like it.
I dont like that I need it, he says.
I think about deleting it daily, he says.
I think that making artwork and not showing it to the world is liberating.
Still, like many of us, he cant help slathering things all over the internet.
Other artists have had more success with their attempts at refusal, though.
Crespo says Instagram was negatively affecting his spirituality and mental health.
The reward systems are addictive.
ArtistJake Borndalquit posting to Instagram when he quit smoking.
Borndal describes Instagram as an unctuous platform, with so many pity likes.
It was ultimately diluting my own thoughts.
Instagram is really not a creative space, as Borndal puts it.
But even when youknowits bad for your brain, it can be hard to quit.
Adams says his biggest misgiving with Instagram is that it seems to represent a liquidation of marginal experience.
Theres less time to simply exist outside of production and consumption.
Life becomes limned by phone-pickups and the buzz of notifications.
It extends the possibility of instrumentalization to almost all waking moments.
It requires carrying the possibility of using it along as part of ones way of seeing all the time.
People leave social media for different reasons.
Their account gets canceled.
They receive an intervention.
But when you delete the app on your phone or even your profile, its never totally gone.
They save all your data for that moment of weakness when you relapse.
Refusal seems futile when theres no way to disappear completely.
