Dev Hynes Quits Social Media
Temporary or permanent? We don’t know.
Time off from social media has become a rare thing in 2015. What would mean the termination of social life to some, a step away from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and company can be a source of inspiration and tranquility. Case in point, Dev Hynes, musical genius, has become inactive on his social media accounts, except for Tumblr, which also seems to approach its end. As Stereogum points out, his last Facebook post dates back to July 1 and it addresses racism and police violence, which was followed by his latest song, “Do You See My Skin Through The Flames,” one day after. Here’s what the post says:
America is in the middle of an act of terrorism right now, and black people are being attacked and killed every day. Every day I wake up and it becomes harder for me to interact with my friends and the world around me. I am scared, scared for myself, for my family, for my brothers & for my sisters. You may see me write on this page or playing music and see me as Blood Orange or Dev Hynes, but I turn the corner and I am just another black man, a black man that can’t get a cab, a black man that has to be careful how i walk if i want to overtake a young white woman so that she doesn’t feel scared, a black man that has to sit down and be silent when a police car circles the basketball court I play at, a black man that could be shot down at any time in my life, and as I’m dying know full well, that even if they were to catch who killed me, he will get off free. It is an incredible sadness & heaviness. Being told that we do not matter on and on and on day to day to day. America likes to act like a super human yet continues to blame human error for these horrific acts. I don’t know what to do anymore.
As for Twitter, his last update was towards June, which indicated that he will abandon the platform soon, while he stopped posting on Instagram roughly seven weeks ago. As mentioned above, only his Tumblr remains active. Question is, how long? On August 31, he sent following ‘good bye’ message:
“when i was younger i was called a faggot for who I was and was spat on and beaten up over and over again and put in hospital and now that i’m older i get insulted for the same reasons but only now i’m called a misogynist instead & it’s hard for me to not think race plays a small role in this… i need to stay with myself and out of the world, I had said bye to twitter, facebook & instagram, but thought this platform was different for some reason. Bye.”
This was followed by a gif from Kanye’s speech at this year’s VMA festivities.
