Time For a Social Media Diet

It’s past time for a social media diet. If it’s not related to creative activities, I’m going to be not interested for a while.

There are a lot of reasons. The big ones:

I’m seeing just how divided the United States really is. And I’m Canadian. If most of what I was seeing didn’t consist of people shouting past each other, half of them demonizing everyone who don’t agree with their opinions, it might not be so bad. But it is.
Facebook doesn’t allow access to news from my country. I don’t regard social media as a primary source of news by any stretch but I do miss the days when someone could point out a story I might have missed. It’s also become an ad-filled cesspool in many areas.
Too many people on my timestream are falling to the trap of believing things just because they see them on the internet.
Too many people in my age group are also falling into the “Old Man Yells At Cloud” routine, complaining about kids and younger generations, or posting about how our generation is the best because it’s our generation. Seems a little soon since the oldest members of Gen X aren’t even 60 yet.
There’s a lot of crossover between those two groups and I’m tired of hiding and unfollowing people. Sooner or later, I’ll wind up saying something that will make someone unhappy. I know it’s a small minority in both cases, but they post so damned much it doesn’t feel like it.

I could probably go on, but it’s starting to make me grouchy.

This isn’t the first time I’ve taken this kind of break, or the second, or even the third. My mood and mental health will both improve as a result. The trick will be to only keep or come back to the pieces that actually make my life better.

I’ll be hanging out a bit on Blue Sky . Politics hasn’t caught up with me there and I’m trying to work things so it doesn’t much. You might catch me on Instagram here and there, but I don’t post a lot and it’s full of ads. I’ll only be logging into Facebook as my author page or to carefully check into the creative groups I’m a member of. What’s left of Twitter has already been off the menu for a while. Other stuff is already private or very limited to specific uses.

I did say diet, not fast. But when I read that last paragraph, it does seem like Facebook is the problem, doesn’t it?

Be well, everyone.