I’ve been using Instagram as a way to stay up to date with all the local community events or small businesses doing events around me for the past couple of years.
With everything happening at Meta and TikTok, I’ve deleted and uninstalled most social media accounts and apps.
Do y’all have any suggestions for keeping up to date on local events around your neighborhoods without having to use Instagram or Facebook? Do I have to sign up for 30 email newsletters?
I am in a similar position, yes. I’ve resisted for so many years, but Instagram right now is the only place where some of the local organizations I’m interested in post. Clubs, town events, even leftist social centers who are usually sensible to online privacy and megacorp dependence sometimes only have an instagram or facebook page.
Right now I have a text note with the urls to the websites of the instagram pages that don’t have a newsletter/RSS feed. And another note with the link to their instagram pages, that I sometimes check out. Luckily you still don’t necessarily need to login to access an account’s recent posts from the browser, so as long as you periodically clear your cookies, a browser will do.
I also have been trying to convince some of these pages to create an account on Mastodon or use Gancio, if available. Even a Telegram channel would suffice. Some of them (two) did, but stopped to update it after a few months because most reach comes from facebook/instagram and they won’t bother to post stuff on another platform
be mindful of what info you want out of instagram before opening it. open it, get what you were looking for and get out. dont let it suck you in. turn off notifications. maybe install it in the work profile (if you use android) and leave the profile disabled when youre not using it.
i try to only open it once a week, like i do with my personal email. otherwise i get sucked into it when i procrastinate. but i admit i mostly rely on some friends finding out about local events.
You’re getting a lot of flack here but I completely agree and am facing down the same issue. The best alternative I’ve found is my local subreddit, which is fairly active around community events. There’s still a disconnect from the actual businesses, by and large, but it’s not nothing.
Its not perfect, but you can anonymously browse Instagram using imginn.
There is also proxygram, which is similar to imginn, but if you don’t want to set up your own instance, you can use others via the Libredirect extension.
Does this proxygram still work? It seems like it hasn’t been patched for a while, and Instagram’s notorious for blocking these.
Well its been a while, but it looks like proxygram no longer works. Guess stick with imginn.
talk to people irl
Telegram.
My Nextdoor app is full of local events. Maybe yours is too?
I’ve seen Nextdoor for parts of Los Angeles and it’s full of garbage, making it less useful. It really depends on how your neighbors are using it.
Nextdoor 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢
Phone call, SMS, RMS, WhatsApp, discord, signal, snapchat, Skype, teams, RSS, Facebook, pixelfed, ect
Say goodbye to your normie friends and make a new set to replace them.
How about you read about it in the local newspaper?
My local paper is NOT gonna tell my when the speakeasy style bar is hosting a jazz night.
Are you sure? Normally those bars advertise events in the local newspaper, there often is a page or two dedicated to things like that at the end of the newspaper.
Buddy they don’t even put it on their website.
Is that the right way to run a business? Heck no, but it’s what’s happening and I like seeing jazz at the speakeasy style bar in a laundromat so I gotta ask someone with an Instagram account to check for me.
Have you spoken to the business? Maybe they can offer a solution that you’re not aware of.
Maybe you can get a group text going with other patrons who will text the group about it? Maybe you can set up an RSS feed from their instagram account?
ive never used those services, ever. email/mailing lists have always just worked… but only for the last 25 years or so. ymmv
