I’ve found myself in the same predicament of late, and it’s not a fun place to be. Good to hear that you’re doing all the things that will help give you a break, and remind you that the world can be a beautiful place with good people in it. Take care, and look after yourself.
Thanks Tom, I'm on a walking holiday and we've agreed to avoid politics for the duration. You are no less entitled to get out and enjoy the open air. I hope you can feel refreshed. It's hard these days to find a balance between head in the sand ostrich behaviour for preservation of one's sanity and action (of which your writing is a great example) I choose to volunteer in various ways - repair cafe, children's nursery etc, but of course it's never enough! Keep up your unique and valuable work, but grasp every opportunity to 'smell the roses' too
I'm not addicted to social media, I am however addicted to absorbing information. Lol. I curate my feeds very carefully, block every ad, and I block every troll. I follow excellent folks who are tracking Covid et al and a few who are tracking the climate breakdown. Interspersed between I have cat, squirrel, and other critter posts for laughter and cuteness🤗
Yeah, was just thinking this morning that I’m very glad I have a dog that needs a lot of exercise. If not for her I wouldn’t have been out walking and would almost certainly been on the internet instead. There days my addiction is YouTube videos about Trump.
Luckily here in Leeds, between October and April, there’s a series of free lunchtime chamber concerts. I’ve just come back from the first on of the season. They are a great boost to mental health.
I have a huge pile of yet to read books, but I’m not getting on with making that pile smaller. I’ll try to remedy that.
Another problem is that any "solution" to this issue is almost certainly going to be top down - and therefore intended to either make the problem worse (IE, more elite control), targeted against 'dissidents' (IE, the BBC/corporate media propaganda will be allowed to flow freely, but our reading of more .alt pieces curtailed dramatically - "FOr OuR OwN BeNefiT", NATURALLY).
What is really needed is for open-source developers, perhaps funded at state level/OS community level, to design and build social media platforms that work bottom-up.
Needless to say, the "elites" will go apeshit - not least regimes like Starver's will REQUIRE no privacy/encryption, so they can read whatever we send to another ("To pRoTeCt ThE ChIlLen!!".
But more and more policy-makers in the EU are realising the severe danger it is leaving all social media in the hands of the US billionaire oligarchy.
Unfortunately, the TOP positions are held by the cults created by the CIA, the VDLs, Starvers, Schmerts', etc. They don't work for us.
Great post and like others here, am at exactly the same point and considering ditching all my social media accounts. Am also reading Scortched Earth - Jonathan Crary (not the most uplifting of reads!) but highly recomended. I think we all need to take a huge pause, reassess where we are both individually and collectively and make some radical and difficult decisions to extricate ourselves out of this toxic entrapment that we have so far sleepwalked into guided by a few who profit from our newly designed dependencies. Its not luddite to appraise, critique and take action, its progressive and a mark of sanity.
Great piece. Ive created a commentary-fiction hybrid with the topic of phone addiction. If you’re looking for more perspective on this complex subject check out this! Thank you <3
It's amazing how much of what you have said echoes how I am feeling. Only put much more eloquently than I ever could
A month ago I had been on a 5 day walking holiday which meant basically no screen time. And it was scary how I fell straight back into doom scrolling the second I got home. And the speed at which my mental health deteriorated with that
I have uninstalled the 'main' social media apps of my phone, and I instantly felt better. And continue to feel better for doing so. I choose when to engage with the news. And substack is the closest thing to social media that I use now. I don't feel any less informed for doing this. And if anything, my view of the world, and people, has become a bit more balanced again
Great post. I have been able to keep a lid on this by not setting up e-mail or Web browsing on my mobile. I only see e-mails and "surf" on my desktop PC at home. I only have limited participation in "social" media, even when I am on-line. Even though I do not watch TV news or listen to radio news, I feel no urge to find out what is happening until my PC is on.
When away on holiday, I have almost no idea what is happening in the world until I get back.
Some very important points made here. I try to keep my scrolling and internet presence under control but it’s much too easy to be on one app and find something that interests me on another. The fact that the internet remembers what topics appeal to me doesn’t help. So I return to my apps, especially those with limitless possibilities (most qualify) and try to mercilessly unsubscribe to as many as I find myself tolerant of losing.
I’ve found myself in the same predicament of late, and it’s not a fun place to be. Good to hear that you’re doing all the things that will help give you a break, and remind you that the world can be a beautiful place with good people in it. Take care, and look after yourself.
Thank you
Good to hear you’re taking time out and stepping away from the internet world and getting out into the real world…..take care
Agree. 👍🏼
Thanks Tom, I'm on a walking holiday and we've agreed to avoid politics for the duration. You are no less entitled to get out and enjoy the open air. I hope you can feel refreshed. It's hard these days to find a balance between head in the sand ostrich behaviour for preservation of one's sanity and action (of which your writing is a great example) I choose to volunteer in various ways - repair cafe, children's nursery etc, but of course it's never enough! Keep up your unique and valuable work, but grasp every opportunity to 'smell the roses' too
I'm not addicted to social media, I am however addicted to absorbing information. Lol. I curate my feeds very carefully, block every ad, and I block every troll. I follow excellent folks who are tracking Covid et al and a few who are tracking the climate breakdown. Interspersed between I have cat, squirrel, and other critter posts for laughter and cuteness🤗
Well said. There is far too much swapping of horror stories on social Media. ANalysis is important, as is action,
Yeah, was just thinking this morning that I’m very glad I have a dog that needs a lot of exercise. If not for her I wouldn’t have been out walking and would almost certainly been on the internet instead. There days my addiction is YouTube videos about Trump.
Luckily here in Leeds, between October and April, there’s a series of free lunchtime chamber concerts. I’ve just come back from the first on of the season. They are a great boost to mental health.
I have a huge pile of yet to read books, but I’m not getting on with making that pile smaller. I’ll try to remedy that.
I hear you, Tom...! And I don't even post much 'original' stuff - mainly links (with my comments!) to things posted by others (including you!).
Another problem is that any "solution" to this issue is almost certainly going to be top down - and therefore intended to either make the problem worse (IE, more elite control), targeted against 'dissidents' (IE, the BBC/corporate media propaganda will be allowed to flow freely, but our reading of more .alt pieces curtailed dramatically - "FOr OuR OwN BeNefiT", NATURALLY).
What is really needed is for open-source developers, perhaps funded at state level/OS community level, to design and build social media platforms that work bottom-up.
Needless to say, the "elites" will go apeshit - not least regimes like Starver's will REQUIRE no privacy/encryption, so they can read whatever we send to another ("To pRoTeCt ThE ChIlLen!!".
But more and more policy-makers in the EU are realising the severe danger it is leaving all social media in the hands of the US billionaire oligarchy.
Unfortunately, the TOP positions are held by the cults created by the CIA, the VDLs, Starvers, Schmerts', etc. They don't work for us.
Great post and like others here, am at exactly the same point and considering ditching all my social media accounts. Am also reading Scortched Earth - Jonathan Crary (not the most uplifting of reads!) but highly recomended. I think we all need to take a huge pause, reassess where we are both individually and collectively and make some radical and difficult decisions to extricate ourselves out of this toxic entrapment that we have so far sleepwalked into guided by a few who profit from our newly designed dependencies. Its not luddite to appraise, critique and take action, its progressive and a mark of sanity.
Great piece. Ive created a commentary-fiction hybrid with the topic of phone addiction. If you’re looking for more perspective on this complex subject check out this! Thank you <3
https://hearthaven.substack.com/p/the-illusion-of-fulfillment
It's amazing how much of what you have said echoes how I am feeling. Only put much more eloquently than I ever could
A month ago I had been on a 5 day walking holiday which meant basically no screen time. And it was scary how I fell straight back into doom scrolling the second I got home. And the speed at which my mental health deteriorated with that
I have uninstalled the 'main' social media apps of my phone, and I instantly felt better. And continue to feel better for doing so. I choose when to engage with the news. And substack is the closest thing to social media that I use now. I don't feel any less informed for doing this. And if anything, my view of the world, and people, has become a bit more balanced again
I hope your break is doing you the world of good
Great post. I have been able to keep a lid on this by not setting up e-mail or Web browsing on my mobile. I only see e-mails and "surf" on my desktop PC at home. I only have limited participation in "social" media, even when I am on-line. Even though I do not watch TV news or listen to radio news, I feel no urge to find out what is happening until my PC is on.
When away on holiday, I have almost no idea what is happening in the world until I get back.
Some very important points made here. I try to keep my scrolling and internet presence under control but it’s much too easy to be on one app and find something that interests me on another. The fact that the internet remembers what topics appeal to me doesn’t help. So I return to my apps, especially those with limitless possibilities (most qualify) and try to mercilessly unsubscribe to as many as I find myself tolerant of losing.