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Ending an Era

Writer's picture: Addie EllisAddie Ellis

Updated: Jan 24


Screenshot of the final step to delete the account
Screenshot of the final step to delete the account

Today I deleted my Facebook, Instagram,

and Threads. Not deactivated, deleted. The option to delete is deeply embedded in both the Facebook and IG platforms. After finally finding the delete prompt, I again realized the power of multiple things existing at the same time. In one breath it was easy, follow the prompts, say yes, delete the profile AND in the next breath, it was extremely hard, “Are you sure you want to delete? You will lose all of your connections! No one will remember you! You will become obsolete!” I've been on Facebook since May 2009, nearly 16 years, I should have expected these panic-filled thoughts in response to the confirmation questions the platforms asked me at 5:39am. I wasn't ready, and, I deleted.


I left the Meta-verse partly for protest, partly for sanity. We are entering a new era that is actually steeped in the old. Power, money, hatred and division are the foundation of our nation. These concepts are linked to the constructs of race and the false notion of supremacy. When we couple these old ways of being with new algorithmic manipulations the outcomes are psychologically and socially disruptive at best, destructive at worst. My fear is we will celebrate our destruction with "thunderous applause."


When we don’t know history we are bound to repeat it. All of us know this phrase, it has been the mantra of every history teacher since the beginning of time. What we fail to recognize is knowing history is only the beginning. Understanding and reconciling history is where we heal. We have never healed. For centuries we opted to bandage, hide, and avoid until the wounds festered. All that's left is the stench of gangrene filling the air. 


In 1903 WEB DuBois wrote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line…No sooner had Northern armies touched Southern soil than this old question, newly guised, sprang from the earth,—What shall be done with Negroes?”  Today we obfuscate this question behind words and phrases like DEI, Woke, and Critical Race Theory; and, in the twenty-first century, we face the same problem and question newly guised, “What shall be done with the scary other.”


Twenty-first century enslavement does not look like an overseer with a bullwhip. It looks like the masses simply giving up, chaining themselves to the new virtual plantation. Falling instead into a helpless lull of “this is the way it’s going to be.” The siren's call of complacency and hopelessness is alluring, especially when it's fueled by an overwhelming fear. We need people in social media spaces AND we need those of us who elect to stay out. We need writers and speakers AND we need protesters and fighters. Most of all we need people to stay awake AND aware, AWAKE AND AWARE. We have been taught that there is only one answer; but, the power is actually in the ampersand, that small simple symbol that connects thought, action, & us. Through all that is and all that is to come don't lose sight of the power of us.


Last Night

Last night I had a dream

Of starry nights and far away places

Of laughing children and joy-filed spaces

Last night I had a dream


Today I saw a memory

Of  water hoses and barking dogs

Of burning torches and strange fruit trees

But, last night I had a dream.


Today I read the news

Of executive orders and insurrectionist pardons

Of burning homes and once in a lifetime storms

But, last night I had a dream. 


Today I took breath

Of unity circles and restful moments 

Of community building and restored joy

Because last night I had a dream.

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