Social Media Break

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So, let’s start with one thing: I like social media as a concept. I loved Twitter for a long time, gradually falling away from it as it filled up with bots and closed-minded arguments. At different times, I’ve enjoyed half a dozen other services to varying degrees, but lately, I’ve found Facebook is travelling a similar route that caused me to more or less abandon Twitter.

I haven’t exactly abandoned Facebook, and I don’t think I could even if I wanted to. It’s an important point of social contact for people to find me, I’m a member of a couple of closed groups that are very important to the martial arts part of my life, and several close friends and family members use messenger.

But I can absolutely work to limit my time on the service and use that time for things I value more. Not that sharing funny memes and getting into sociopolitical arguments with strangers isn’t fun, but is it the right use of my time, the most limited currency I have?

Much as the marketing folks at FB would weep to hear me say it, it’s not.

I logged into FB tonight for the first time since Boxing Day. And I haven’t really been missing it. Probably because I’ve been filling that time with writing and reading.

A little more time was needed than I might have liked to catch up. My birthday was in there and I had a number of messages to reply to. I’d also missed a couple of other people’s birthdays, so had to take care of that. Then I needed to catch up on a couple of posts in a closed group. I spent about five minutes scrolling and shared one meme.

That’s all.

I had a blog post to write, mushrooms to marinate, and a book to continue reading. And I’m good with all of that taking priority.

Be well, everyone.

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