There was a time when social media felt like magic. Like MySpace. That was my first real social media. Sure, there were platforms before it, but MySpace? That was the first place I could pour out a little soul. Customize the vibe. Share my world. It felt like mine. Whether or not it was safe, it felt safe—and for me, that mattered.

I even helped my eldest son set up his MySpace when the time came (or maybe when the begging finally wore me down). I was so proud of the little world we built together. Then the tide turned.

Enter: Facebook.

At first, I resisted. Hard. It felt cold, calculated. Like it came not from a place of creativity, but control. But slowly, everyone shifted over. Even the woman I worked with—who I really liked and wanted to be friends with—told me flat out, “Oh no, I would never have a MySpace. I’m on Facebook.”

Ouch.

And just like that, peer pressure wasn’t just for teenagers. My son, his friends, the cool co-workers… everyone migrated. So I did too. And for 16 years, I stayed.

I built a presence. I connected with people. I watched CherryCoBiz grow. I even earned Meta’s shiny little “creator” title, racking up over 5,000 followers and getting a taste (just a taste) of those elusive bonuses—ten whole dollars. ?

But slowly, things changed. The environment felt less like a community and more like surveillance. My values deepened. The political landscape darkened. And then Meta really showed its cards: policy shifts cozying up to the Trump administration, loosening hate speech restrictions, selling our data like candy at a carnival.

I realized I wasn’t just sharing anymore. I was being mined.

So I left. All of it. Facebook, Instagram, Threads—deleted.

I backed up what I could (thank you, 5TB external drive), shed a few tears over the friendships I might lose, and hit the button. I wrote about it in “Breaking Free from Meta” and again in “A New Chapter for CherryCoBiz”. Because leaving wasn’t just personal—it was political. I can’t support platforms that enable fascism. I can’t stay quiet when DEI is under attack. I won’t keep feeding systems that profit from division.

So what does social media look like for me now?

It looks like CherryCoBiz—my own platform. Built by me, for real conversations. For reflection. For recipes, resistance, and radical honesty. Where Meta silenced, CherryCoBiz gave me back my voice.

It looks like BlueSky, where I post as @cherrycobiz.com, slowly building new connections with people who get it.

It still includes LinkedIn, but let’s be honest—I’ve never found it particularly helpful. Supposedly for professionals, but it’s never done much for me. Feels like it’s part networking tool, part popularity contest… and I’m not really here for either.

It looks like TikTok, though I’m not investing much there anymore. With all the political drama around bans and ownership, who knows where it’s headed? I’m still present, but not planting roots.

It looks like writing, instead of chasing algorithms. Sharing my heart, my beliefs, and my truth—even when it’s not popular. Especially when it’s not popular.

Social media used to be about fun. Now, it’s about freedom.

I’m not big time. I’m just me. And I’ll keep using my voice—even if the audience is smaller—because I believe it matters. I use social media now to connect with integrity, to build something honest, and to fight for what’s right—because silence isn’t wellness, and I’m not sitting this out.