Member-only story
Disconnecting to Reconnect with Myself
How Being Forced Away Changed It All
There was a time when I spent hours scrolling Facebook, keeping up with every update and comment. But then my entire digital life vanished in an instant.
Fifteen years of memories, photos, and connections — gone. Someone had hacked my Facebook account and with pretty much no warning, no chance to back up precious photos and no way to say goodbye to online friends I’d known for over a decade I lost it all.
Because my Instagram was linked, that disappeared as well. Everything I had ever posted — gone. At first, I was gutted, devastated, crushed. But then I realized losing it all didn’t actually change anything important. Even the photos I no longer had backups of and the friends I might never find again — if I couldn’t remember who they were, were they really friends?
Breaking Free
I missed my Instagram bookmarks the most, but I never really went back to them anyway. Losing access to people’s mundane updates and photos of people I didn’t even know turned out to be refreshing, not a loss. After staying away from Facebook for a year, I eventually rejoined to use Marketplace and reconnect with some family. But I forget to check it. It’s not even on my phone, and honestly, I feel free.
