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# In a moment of heightened ethical compromise, after an honorable six-year absence, I debased my humanist instincts and signed up for Instagram
- URL: https://www.taiwanquest.com/instagram/
- Published: 2023-05-27T08:05:38.000Z
- Updated: 2023-06-14T08:41:46.000Z
- Description: Don’t forget to follow, like, and share…
- Author: Zhen-Kang

I deleted my social accounts back in 2017\. Since then, I never missed Facebook. I feel cleaner without it.

But I liked Instagram.

It helped me find photography locations and meet other hobbyists. I haven’t found another platform so good at those things.

However, Instagram and Facebook are part of the same amoral organization.

[So in 2017, this excellent (long) article from the *London Review of Books* prompted me to delete both accounts](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n16/john-lanchester/you-are-the-product).

Since then, [Facebook facilitated actual human genocide](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence); [Instagram suppressed research showing it was psychologically damaging](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/14/facebook-aware-instagram-harmful-effect-teenage-girls-leak-reveals); [Meta repeatedly violated user privacy](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/22/tech/meta-facebook-data-privacy-eu-fine/index.html); and [Facebook elected Trump](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-diagram).

But…

Here in Taiwan, where I’ve been unable to find an English-language source for local (Kaohsiung) news and events, Instagram could be useful. So I’ve been reckoning with my ethical concerns.

If a platform is obviously bad—but also useful—and potentially a net positive for my life in Taiwan, should I rejoin?

For now, yes.

![Screenshot of the Taiwan Quest Instagram account.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2023/05/taiwan-quest-instagram-screenshot-1.jpg)

[Follow me @taiwanquest](https://www.instagram.com/taiwanquest/)

**To my family and friends**, I look forward to following you in return. I’ve missed this kind of connection.

**To the wider world and to my compromised sense of self**, sincerely and melodramatically, forgive me.

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