Why I’m Retiring from Social Media

The age of the doom-scroll has ended. The time of the focused & sane individual has come.

I’m Done

Ok that’s it. I’m out.

I’m retiring from social media - (and most other media)

The funny thing is that if you had to guess why.. you would probably get close to the right answer..

But there are actually multiple answers, all with their own nuance, and all glaringly obvious at this point in my life

A Page for the Good

But before we get to that, I want to touch on the ways that social media is positive and good.

The social element is one. Duh… but also, discovery.. of new friends, new tools, new ways of doing things or ways of thinking. Once upon a time I actually made my living from being an influencer/creator. Also, people share some really helpful and useful stuff on there and social media has proven to be one of the most reliable places I can go to get a good laugh. We all have that one group chat…

So, my decision to leave is a trade off, and for me, the juice on social media just isn’t worth the squeeze… as much as I try to cultivate a healthy and useful explore page, it inevitably devolves into ass.. figuratively and literally.

Even though there are good things that I will be giving up.. when I look at the grass on the other side, it’s pretty green and in stark contrast to the grass over here which is dying, drying out and catching fire.

A One Thousand Page Novel for The Bad

Now, let’s talk about the downsides..

Social media is Toxic..

Distracting

It wastes my time

Steals my joy

Desecrates my peace of mind

Generates a steady flow of ambient anxiety and delivers it straight through my eyeballs and into my brain..

When I log on to IG or Twitter, I literally start to feel sick. I’m not even exaggerating. I actually get unpleasant physical sensations in my stomach when I log on (I also know other people who experience this).

These endless feeds have stolen so much time from me that I would probably pay money to stay ignorant to the actual amount.. and in that time they force fed me (mostly) content that, in retrospect, I didn’t want to consume and had little to no positive impact on my life.

I know that my usage and relationship to social media is possibly unique but when I take a look back at all the doom scrolling, hunched over with my neck hanging at a clean 90 degree angle.. it’s actually tragic. Pour one out for my C7 vertebrae and all the good hours I was tricked into sacrificing for Zuck’s sunscreen budget.

All jokes aside… I can’t keep going down that road… it’s just bad for me… in all the obvious ways

but also in subtle ways.

And to be honest, it’s the subtle ways that worry me the most.

The first of which being the brain fog and scatting of my consciousness that sets in slowly and boils my mind like a frog in what he thought was a nice warm bath.

I only became aware of this effect after my first media cleanse. (One month of no TV, YouTube, podcasts, social media, books etc..)

It turns out that all of the media flying around in my life, severely impairs my ability to focus and to think clearly about anything. It’s like trying to hear someone whispering from across a room full of people yelling and shouting.

I might be able to lip read a little bit but it’s pretty much a futile effort. The weird thing is that this isn’t obvious unless you disconnect for a while and have a chance to really experience the clarity of thought and mind that comes with a media cleanse.

You really just can’t see the forest through the trees.

Another thing is the way it’s disorienting in terms of information and news.

A tiktok about why you should eat greens is one swipe away from a tiktok about why greens aren’t meant to be eaten by humans and how they will destroy your gut.

One minute I’m watching Candice Owens explain why dinosaurs aren’t real and they are actually “pretty fake and gay” And the next minute I’m watching some dude explain how some dinosaurs actually survived the asteroid impact, lived among ancient humans and were recorded in history and myth; referred to as “dragons”. (I’m partial to the latter theory)

Personally, I just can’t exist in that type of environment and maintain any clarity of mind. I’ve tried moderation. I’ve had some success with setting aside specific days and times for social media.. but somehow I always end up getting led back to the altar, bled out, and gutted.

It’s time for me to let go..

Indefinitely..

There’s much more I could say here but.. I don’t want to beat a dead dinosaur ;)

In an attempt to save ink (and your time), I’m leaving out a whole other aspect of this because I’ve written about it in detail here. It’s been one of my more popular posts and also one of my favorites. It’s about how we’ve all begun to interface with these social media sites and algorithms like the Gods of the old testament and ancient religions in general.

What’s on the other side?

At this point, I have a pretty clear intention for who and how I want to be.

I want to live slower

Bask in my thoughts..

Run further (literally and metaphorically)

When I eat.. just eat and actually taste my food.

I want to create music without thinking about the TikTok I’m gonna make with it.

I want to get lost in a good book.. every day.

Look at the clouds

Breathe

Look at the clouds

Breathe

Take photos of the clouds

Breathe

Draw some clouds..

Breathe

Video the clouds..

Develop in myself:

Love - Joy - Peace

Patience - Kindness - Goodness

Faithfulness - Gentleness - Self-control

I don’t want to know who wins the US election in November..

I want to go back to filming things horizontally..

I don’t want to care about views and subs and likes and streams and followers and bleh

Can I not determine the worth of my work and art on my own?

I’m going to try.

I used to view this all as an opportunity, a blue ocean.

As the world comes online, people (we) are diving headfirst into the waves.

Now, as I pull myself onto dry land, I can see the rocks lurking just beneath the surface and welcoming the bodies of the divers, only to break them apart.

The water is running red.

Soon only the open sky will be left to look to…

How will this look in practice?

Ok now for the hard part. How can I accomplish this? How can I build a life for myself that fosters the desires and qualities that I’ve stated above?

Here is my to-do list

• [ ] Revamp website (clean and simple)

• [ ] Make YT video/blog post about your retirement.

• [ ] Make pinned videos/comments for all socials explaining where I went

• [ ] Clean up social feeds

• [ ] Log out on every device

• [ ] Delete all apps (even YouTube studio)

• [ ] Commit to the retirement (ritualistically)

• [ ] Develop a habit of noticing when you wonder about the numbers/stats and switch to thinking about whatever project you are working on.

(By the time of posting, most these have all been completed)

A couple other details/rules and exceptions:

• No news, TV, podcasts, social media, movies, etc..

• I can still read books (opt for classics, novels or ancient texts)

• I can consume media from creators (YT or Pod) that I pay to support (only allowed on one day per week)

• I can watch an occasional movie for inspirational purposes (1 per week MAX)

• I can watch YT videos for specific educational purposes (how to use a tool or to research something I’m writing about or NEED an answer to).

1- 2- 3 GO!

Join me

Before I go, I would like to extend a formal invitation to anyone reading this to join me.

If you relate to my struggle and grievances with the current media environment, get out of there.

I’m going to be more lonely now than I was before so I could use a little group of people who are doing the same. I have this chat thread here on Substack that can be our home base. Don’t be a stranger.

If you need a little push over the edge check out this article by Tommy Dixon that definitely moved the needle for me.

Or this YouTuber who has also left social media and is part of what inspired me to do so as well.

I’ve also written a lot about my relationship with social media before. If you’re interested check these out if you’re interested to see the progression.. (it’s been a 180 flip since I started)

Your Screen Is Mean

Becoming Less Content Making Content

Being Content Making Content

Thanks for being here and see you next week! <3

Book a (free) one-on-one video call with me to discuss this topic (or other topics)

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New From Me

• YouTube version of this post if that’s more your speed!

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What I’m Watching

• Rings of power! So far kinda eh but I have high hopes for the rest.

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What I’m Listening to

• Throwing it back to Green Day this week!

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Strike Tracker

• The cabin crew on the Japan airlines flight being so kind a respectful making me want to visit Japan

• Ordering 2 meals and getting everything delivered for $5 total and thinking how is this real life.

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Photo Dump

the clouds and sunsets in Bangkok are bananas

vibe city

the setup

pool go

saw these 3 different color lakes from the plane hmmmmmm

shaved the beard son!