When I joined Newschoolers, I didnt really tell any of my friends or family.
I wasnt super comfortable with the idea of forums, of typing words into an abyss of faceless strangers.
Be careful, potential employers can see anything you post on the internet!
And somehow, after a few years, I realized Id accidentally made real friends on this skiing website.
People from the internet, skiing together.
And then there was Instagram.
Or more specifically, and then everyone started really caring about Instagram.
If theres one app thats altered the landscape of skiing in the last decade, its the big IG.
Is it killing the ski movie?
Im not a behavioral psychologist.
But they were undeniably triggered in mine.
A desire to produce content for the gram drove more and more of my decisions.
Just fake a turn on that plow pile.
And again, no doctor here, but it wasnt healthy.
Teddy Roosevelt was just stating the obvious when he said that Comparison is the thief of joy.
And Instagram is carefully designed to feed off your comparisons.
It all sucked, but there wasnt some big exciting rock bottom for me.
I didnt almost die because of Instagram, didnt develop an eating disorder.
Pretty sure this was for Snapchat, not Instagram, but who cares?
Thanks for taking me to Whistler that one time Doug.
Instead, I stumbled across people who were using Instagram in the same way I used to browse Newschoolers.
It was a simple way to connect, to learn, to get inspired.
My toxic attitude about Instagram had carried over to the place I first started making internet friends.
I was viewing NS as the same stupid ladder of algorithms and shoutouts and manufactured BS that Instagram is.
And its just not.
Instagram does its best to con you into believing that internet friends are just for mutual exploitation.
Instagram wants to create Internet friendships that are built on a toxic foundation of comparison.
Newschoolers does the opposite.
Instagram makes you compete with everyone else for fresh turns on a pow day.
Newschoolers helps you make the kind of friends you want to wait for to take another lap together.
Is Instagram killing real ski culture?
I dont think so, but we do have to wade through more crap to find it.
Im still learning to trust internet friendships.
But the ones Ive made so far have all paid off.
So I guess its time to go make a few new friends.
