After 2 days quitting social media and general news sites, I’m considering ways to make this break more permanent. I’ve long thought social media negatively impacted my life. I never realized just how much. While I’m not feeling substantially more energetic, I am finding myself doing more healthful things than the infinite scroll.
Fin’s approach to social media is strict monitoring and extremely active curation of the feed. No politics / hate / drama allowed. She tries to keep it full of local information, groan worthy dad jokes, and animal cuteness. Management is an interesting thought. TV never pretended to be an active medium. Social media grants the delusion of active participation. In reality, what little active participation exists takes the form of joining the mob. How many people get the majority of their information from social media? If social media guides the selection of news stories we read – who’s editing the selection? The mob. Ouch.
Reviewing my yearly goals, I’ve found several that I’ve let lapse. I’m doubling down on trying to complete these for the rest of the year. In lieu of rebuilding my on-the-last-legs acoustic, I emptied some of the “grand piano” savings account for an electric keyboard to last for hopefully a couple years while I continue saving. I’ve found myself playing substantially more and with more enjoyment.
Fin has continued to take over the garden. I half feel like I should reclaim a couple squares for myself, but it makes me happy to see her back outside with her various projects.
My previous mindless social media time is redirecting toward paper book reading, journaling, and projects. As a whole, I’m also learning to appreciate that reading, websites, movies, and all these things – count toward my daily “spoon ration”.
For Dinner last night, Fin and I sat outside with a campfire and enjoyed the night without lots of tech floating around. I’ve spent a lot of effort trying to figure out how to “recharge”. It never occurred to me that I needed to find healthful ways of “doing nothing”. Had I not been on the social media purge, I’m sure after a few minutes the phone would come out and I’d go back to the feed.
I can’t even remember what originally linked me to this site, but I wounds up reading a bunch of posts and noticed you are also in the KC/OP area, so I just thought I’d say “HI!” Take care