Compressing thought down to 140 or so characters does a lot of things. Reading other people’s compressed thoughts seems to have a negative impact on me, so I think it is time to log off of any media focused on short-form content. That goes for both short-form video, which I already avoided, and now short-form text-based media. I am also going to begin avoiding spending time on any website that is primarily algorithmically driven, or has infinite scrolling mechanisms.
When I spend time on sites such as BlueSky, and previously sites such as Twitter, I notice that I become frustrated with what people are posting fairly frequently, the things they have to say. Often I actually agree with the person, but there are several negatives to compressed thought that I think I should avoid it for the benefit of myself. Scrolling forever makes it easy to waste lots of time. Additionally, you see a lot of green grass on the other sides of fences that is maybe not as green as you think. Some examples:
- Due to needing to express an idea in such few characters it is easy to make a mountain out of a molehill. Due to how engagement works, this effect can be amplified depending on how that “poster” is choosing engage with the site themselves.
- Maybe it is just how my brain is interpreting the words in-front of me, but it is easy to feel as if really smart people who know a lot about their topics are punching down at others for not being as knowledgeable. Possibly this effect would be diminished with an actual essay or blog post by the person, but the limited characters makes it easy to come off that way I think, even if unintentional.
- Related to the above two points: it feels as if quite a lot of people on social media are angry or upset all the time. Advocating for things is fine, and does not bother me, but it took me a while to realize complainers are what annoy me. While advocates fight for change, complainers complain into the void and just circle-jerk their day away.
- While I often feel lonely in real life, scrolling my feed would make me feel slightly less lonely. You can reply to people, and they will talk back to you. But really these false “hangout” sessions are pulling me away from actually getting out of the house and meeting real people in real life. Maybe I would be married by now if I had gotten off social media years ago, but to dwell like that is to waste more time.
- I keep putting off going back to school. I beat myself up about this almost every day. I am 34 now, I have plenty of time, but I have put it off for far too long. Sure, I do not know what to do next but I can figure it out if I stop feeling jealous of all of the other people who got to go to graduate school.
- I feel as if constantly moving from topic to topic at 140 or so characters has broken my reading brain somehow. My eyes start to cross if I have to read too much text. I know I have ADHD, but I used to practically swallow books whole as a child. What is different between my childhood and now? Social media and smart phones. I also have a separate issue of getting anxiety when I start to read a fiction book, any fiction book, but that is something I can probably muscle through if I start grunting out books.
Will there be an adjustment period for me? Sure, probably around the loneliness part specifically. But after two days off of BlueSky I feel as if I am not really going to miss it. I did delete my original Twitter account years ago because I felt as if everyone was angry all the time and guess what: the Twitter clone had the same problems.
So this year my resolution is to log off. I am going to close the tab and go out into the world and find myself. I am going to practice artwork, fiddle in my garage with my electronics, and take up cold weather hiking/camping. Oh, and read some long-form writing, hopefully lots of it.