After taking a digital detox from Instagram for close to eight months, I reopened my account only to have it disabled for violating the community terms. It felt strange. I had never had a problem with a social media platform before. Coincidentally, Instagram had been having technical problems over the two days prior, so perhaps they overlapped somehow and caused some sort of glitch.
Still, I couldn’t shake the sense of loss. A collection of pixels in chronological order to match my growth and experiences, interactions and friendships that crossed oceans and continents so easily seem to have evaporated into thin air. We depend on technology to help maintain some of our relationships and interests regardless of what we may want to convince ourselves and as much as it is somewhat toxic at times it is helpful and convenient too.