> ## Content Index
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> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# 🔗 CLICK THRU 008 : March 2025
- URL: https://offthegrid.ghost.io/click-thru-008-march-2025/
- Published: 2025-03-19T14:37:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T21:16:26.000Z
- Description: We're breaking up with everything
- Author: Amelia Hruby, PhD
- Tags: Newsletter, CLICKTHRU, #Migrated-1784129708849, #Import 2026-07-15 10:39

#### Welcome to our social-media-free-online-biz-and-marketing links digest AKA the CLICK THRU!

This month’s round-up includes the rise of [**brands on Substack**](https://www.milkkarten.net/p/brands-posting-on-substack-strategy?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), advice on [**finding book recs without an algorithm**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUuteoQUj8&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io), and more!

As always, this is a choose-your-own-adventure sort of endeavor, so you’re invited to dip your toe in one link at a time, dive into the deep end and open them all at once, or just hang out in the splash zone of the comments and see what surfaces there.

Please remember that I don’t necessarily know the folks who create the things I link to, and I definitely don’t endorse every single thing that every single person I mention writes, says, or shares.

And just in case you’re not on top of your pod feed lately… Off the Grid season six is in full swing! Here’s what we’ve published so far:

- [🌀 The Reality of Being an Artist-Influencer in 2025 — with Arielle Estoria](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/artist-influencer-arielle-estoria?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)
- [⏱️ Making Time: Creativity over Productivity — with Maria Bowler](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/making-time-maria-bowler?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)
- [🧿 Visibility & the Joy/Grief of an Online Life — with Lisa Olivera](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/lisa-olivera?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)
- [🌊 What Really Happens When Your Business Leaves Social Media — with Leah Kern](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/leah-kern?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)
- [🖌️ Copywriting, Pain Point Marketing & 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Sales Pages — with Nicole Cloutier](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/copywriting-nicole-cloutier?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

OK on to our eighth CLICK THRU + I’ll see you in the comments!

🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗

# WHAT’S UP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

😵‍💫 I LOL’d at this Vox reporting on [**the strange repulsion of Instagram Reels**](https://www.vox.com/culture/401596/instagram-reels-bad?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).

📸 Speaking of being repulsed by Instagram… [**Yope**](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/24/yope-is-sparking-genz-and-vc-interest-with-an-instagram-like-app-for-private-groups/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email) is apparently a new app for photosharing with friends, so you can #closefriends with just your close friends?

🤖 Oh and now you can get [**AI to help with writing comments on Instagram**](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-tests-ai-generated-comments-posts/742633/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)?

👾 [**This is a really interesting take**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cexsiAzgCU&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) on #DigitalDetoxCore. And it reminded me of this reported piece on: [**is the digital detox industry a scam?**](https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/65921/1/is-the-digital-detox-industry-a-scam-phones-social-media?utm%5Fsource=Link&utm%5Fmedium=Link&utm%5Fcampaign=RSSFeed&utm%5Fterm=is-the-digital-detox-industry-a-scam)

🤬 No one is shocked to discover that [**Community Notes doesn’t really work to combat misinformation.**](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/report-finds-community-notes-not-displayed-to-users/742898/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

⏰ I loved [**this interactive piece from the NYT**](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/24/opinion/tiktok-users-focus-group.html?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email) on how people are thinking/feeling about social media & TikTok.

⏲️ Speaking of TikTok — it’s a new day and we have [**a new potential TikTok deal**](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/oracle-leads-us-tiktok-negotiations/742505/?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) in the works.

🧐 I’m guessing [**this study**](https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-42103-001.html?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) was sponsored by social media coaches…

🤓 And if you’re a nerd about social media + identity like me, you’ll definitely want to read this study: [**Why’s Everyone on TikTok Now? The Algorithmized Self and the Future of Self-Making on Social Media**](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20563051221086241?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

# ONLINE BIZ & CONTENT CREATION

💔 Loved [**this sweet inspo**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fdb40zsLaU&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) to hand-deliver (or at least mail) event invitations.

😬 I think [**these**](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/investing/stocks-trump-wall-street-tariffs/index.html?utm%5Fsource=gloria.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=some-good-mail) [**three**](https://www.axios.com/2025/02/18/dei-consumers-shopping-politics-poll?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) [**pieces**](https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-the-end-of-predictable) \[[1](https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/14/investing/stocks-trump-wall-street-tariffs/index.html?utm%5Fsource=gloria.beehiiv.com&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=some-good-mail), [2](https://www.axios.com/2025/02/18/dei-consumers-shopping-politics-poll?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) \+ [3](https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-the-end-of-predictable)\] paint a compelling + cringe-inducing portrait of our current economic moment.

📫 [Amanda Laird](https://open.substack.com/users/254498) and I called it in our [2025 Marketing Trends episode](https://offthegrid.fun/shownotes/2025-marketing-trends?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)… [**the Brands have made it to Substack!**](https://www.milkkarten.net/p/brands-posting-on-substack-strategy?utm%5Fcampaign=post&utm%5Fmedium=web&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)

🌱 I love when people talk about [**creating a digital garden**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tY7Z53QJo8&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io)**.** See also my friend Kening’s writing + podcast episodes on [**the anatomy of a digital world**](https://keningzhu.com/journal/the-anatomy-of-a-digital-world?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io).

🙃 I also loved the 2025 Creative Playbook [**in this piece**](https://magazine.metalabel.com/p/stop-posting-start-releasing-the?ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) from [Metalabel](https://open.substack.com/users/92117685).

📚 As an avid fan of Booktube, I was so intrigued to see this video on [**where to find books outside booktok**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUuteoQUj8&ref=offthegrid.ghost.io) / the algorithm!

# And finally…

# BABES LEAVING SOCIAL MEDIA

You know I absolutely *love* to see more and more folks interrogating social media, and of course I bookmark it every time I clock it. This section is where I share those pieces for boosts of encouragement to make changes you might be desiring. This month I’m also including pieces on leaving Amazon, Google, and Spotify!

[Inconvenience Can Be Beams of Lovein and out of the time famine![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/f82c7006-70c3-4707-b0de-6006519825d3_835x835.png)Venus in Gemini](https://existingtogether.substack.com/p/inconvenience-can-be-beams-of-love)

[plato's caveEach week I stay off of Instagram (and Amazon!) I feel more and more in a separate (not bad, but certainly odd) parallel reality. I have made my phone very boring – it is just a phone now, and a camera, and a weather and maps app. It doesn’t hold the wondrous worlds of everybody doing (performing?) everything.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/06771382-6952-477c-845b-154a7548fe0e_256x256.png)Jessica Snow's PARALLEL SOCIETY](https://jessicasnow.substack.com/p/platos-cave)

[everyone is leaving instagramIf there was an award for Most Time’s I’ve Deleted the Instagram App Only To Download It Again Two Hours Later, I’d be going head to head with Selena Gomez. I might even be the winner.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/6aecdebd-b636-4468-8866-b599403c5560_500x500.png)runaways collective](https://runawayscollective.substack.com/p/everyone-is-leaving-instagram)

[How I Broke Up With Amazon: A Practical GuideIf you’ve started feeling uneasy about Amazon’s dominance over, well, everything—and the power billionaires have over, well, also everything—and you’re looking to curb your Amazon consumption in 2025, this is for you. Or if, as you’ll read in my experiences, you are looking to save a bit of money, reduce clutter and have more time for the things that wi…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/73036d30-7036-4c92-a10b-50ee6f53b5c1_1280x1280.png)Brittany's Notebook](https://brittanyviklund.substack.com/p/how-i-broke-up-with-amazon-a-practical)

[Leaving Spotify Was Surprisingly EasyA few days before the clock struck midnight for 2025, I made a list of goals I hope to accomplish this new year. I immediately typed out “Leave Spotify” in my notes app, a task that’s been intimidating me for far too long. I joined Spotify in 2015 and was a super user from the jump. As a huge music enthusiast and music industry pr…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/44/9a/449ad1a5-0f88-4b95-8768-72c8a12a4ca1/content/images/2026/07/6665e6ce-8b8e-4558-92f3-320f79a89592_1080x1080.png)Scribble Scrabble](https://allisonnb.substack.com/p/leaving-spotify-was-surprisingly)

#### OK that’s it for CLICK THRU 008, my friends!

#### I can’t wait to see you in the comments. xoxo, Amelia

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