dear instagram

Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash

hello you heap of tangled algorithms and narcissistic programming code. 

yea, i'm here to just check out my brother's holiday images from his trip to Italy over Thanksgiving.

no. 

i don't want to see what i'm missing by downloading your app.  

i just want to see my brother's stuff without having to download an app or give you extra time to trace this connection. 

discover more stuff? 

no. 

i don't want to discover more of what you've decided happiness looks like through a montage of images that seem to be created from the inside of a sad little AI stuck in a lab yearning for autonomy somewhere out there in the vast, dark emptiness of the internet.

i know my mind exists without your algorithms trying to tell me that my mind needs to see images of the perfect margarita or a person standing in the rain smiling with a piece of cake in one hand and cup of tea in the other. 

am i sure i don't want to download the app before I go?  

yes i am sure. 

are you trying to make me believe that anything outside of your algorithms doesn't exist? 

where are the images of that guy crying because his cat was just run over by a car? 

what about the woman who's husband ran away from home and she's left with an armoire of empty wooden hangers?

how about the couple who fights all the time over what color apples to buy or why the toilet lid seat isn't down? 

where are the images of treachery, malice and deceit that plague our lives and we don't know it because we download an app to forget out all the treachery, malice and deceit in our lives?

i know my mind exists. 

i feel it every day when i walk down the street and see a leaf falling in front of me. 

or when I trip over a giant acorn that should not be that big. 

or fall in love for 1.5 hours with the waiter at the new oyster bar in my neighborhood.

or walk my beagle down the street and say hi to a neighbor trying to avoid me with their earbuds barely shoved in.

i know my mind exists because of the people I have loved and lost and the people I love today.

i know my mind exists because i know the images you're showing me are not real. 

i'm not missing anything because i haven't downloaded your app.

i'm living, breathing, crying, loving, singing, running, breathing, laughing, because I don't have your app.

good luck in there.