Life was better before all the unsolicited advice in Instagram feeds – Bend Bulletin

On Sunday at Farm Fiend’s private, backyard skate bowl set-up between Sunriver and La Pine, Kevin, a skater who was visiting from the valley, and I began making plans to meet up again later that day, before he headed back over the hill. I suggested we just message each other via Instagram, but Kevin had deleted it, only later realizing how many people he lost touch with because he didn’t have their numbers. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to miss it, adding that he’d joined Instagram to watch skate videos, not see people die. Surely he mentioned some other things he didn’t get on Instagram expecting to see, but they didn’t stick the way that one did. It made me wonder what the heck the algorithm was sending his way. Mine feeds me innocent Reels and slide posts — skateboard trick tips, nutrition minutiae, clever meal ideas, stretching routines I won’t try, masochistic mobility movements, crazy calisthenics, arcane facts about plants (“English ivy filtered out 94% of airborne fecal matter and 78% of mold spores”), and, fortunately, indie-rock bands, Marvel movie highlights. Though I haven’t jettisoned social media from my life, I do romanticize the time before my phone got its
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