#66 | logging off
Easier said than done, I know.
I’ve been chronically online since before the term existed. I joined Twitter back in 2008, less than two years after it started. I logged into my ex-boyfriend’s college Facebook account so I could send myself an invitation to join before I got my own college email address. MySpace taught me basic coding skills, and somewhere out there is an old LiveJournal and a handful of terrible GeoCities sites with black backgrounds, turquoise text, and digital “snow” falling down over the Comic Sans copy.
All of which was built on a foundation of instant messaging and AOL chat rooms, of course.
I’ve met some of my best friends through the internet, learned about things I would have never known existed, and experienced life through different perspectives.
But I am tired. So so so so tired. It feels like every time I open one of the many apps that bring me more information than a single person could consume in a lifetime, I am faced with yet another destabilizing piece of content.
Then I see a cat video! I laugh at a clip of a stand-up comedian! A small child has a big voice that rivals Adele! All of these human, dopamine-inducing moments existing alongside news of lockdown drills at elementary schools, increasingly authoritarian moves made by our government, the erosion of trust in science & medicine, and a general overarching sense of “What the actual fuck??”.
I know I’m not alone in feeling this way — it comes up in nearly every conversation I have with friends these days. “How are the kids? Was the vacation great? What’s new at work? Did you see that latest headline that unlocks an entirely new nightmare about the state of our democracy and rattles our faith in society?”
The onslaught is inescapable, or so it seems in my mind. The 24/7 entertainment news cycle, the tiny device in our hands that keep us informed of every breaking story and outrageous soundbite, all packaged into a sophisticated algorithm designed to keep us coming back for more.
Last November, I deleted Instagram from my phone for a couple weeks in an effort to avoid the hot takes and think pieces about why Kamala lost, what was wrong with the polling, the things the Democrats should have done differently, and the debate over who should be held responsible for Biden’s decision to run again. It was too much, all at once.
Those two weeks turned into two months, months in which I had control over when & how I consumed news. They weren’t spent in blissful ignorance — I knew what was happening in the world — but I determined the rate of consumption.
It’s starting to feel like too much, all at once again, and it’s time to log off for a bit.
I’m sure some of you reading this might be thinking, “That sounds great, but I could never do it.” I promise you can. It takes just one moment of strength to delete the app(s) off your phone. They can always be downloaded again! Just give it a try.
I did it yesterday. Already feeling the benefits of it and hoping I can keep of it. It's just too much...I guess my closets should be terrified at this point b/c I have nothing keeping me from them now. No job, no social media...what shall a girl do??
I am THIS CLOSE to doing the same thing. I'm so tired of all of the hot takes, the same opinions spun slightly different (even my own lol). I keep thinking that I need to find something new to learn or study to give my brain something to problem-solve or stay busy with so I'm not in this constant state of spiraling over every new headline. OH AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY! <3