Blocking out the noise
About 3 weeks ago, I made the decision to quit social media. This was something that I had been thinking about doing for a while now. Over the past few months, I felt that the joys that I once experienced on these sites have been seeing diminishing returns.
I love social media, everyone does. Being able to interact with literally anyone across the world at the press of a button is truly magical. From connecting with people back in the day with IRC and services like AOL Instant Messenger, and now spending almost all of my time talking with dozens of people on Discord, most of whom I've never even met in person. Being able to have genuine human connections with someone who quite literally lives as far as possible away from me, in fractions of a second, is what the internet I first logged onto was made for.
I've mentioned this in my manifesto, but the internet has truly impacted my life in ways that were unfathomable only a few years ago. I've met hundreds of wonderful people, fallen in love with some of them, maintained friendships that have persisted over half of my life, reconnected with people who I haven't seen since I was in elementary school, traveled across the country to meet with friends who've I've known for years just to hang out with for a few days. Words are unable to capture the true majesty that the internet has done for me.
And yet, I'm slowly finding myself using less and less of it. My vices were Twitter and Reddit. I used to spend hours on these websites, finding so many cool little communities and posts about whatever piqued my interest at that moment in time. Twitter was a lovely place where I could just log on and see what some of my favorite people in the world were up to, hear news about things that I was genuinely interested in, and keep up to date with other pieces of media that I enjoyed. Sure things have mostly stayed the same, but I just don't enjoy it as much. Maybe it's because those people who I've cared about have also stopped using these platforms as often. Maybe it's the seemingly ever-increasing amount of nonsense that I don't care to see. Maybe it's the engagement farmers and scammers that plague the platform. I could just probably unfollow a lot of accounts that I'm not interested in anymore, but I feel like that's more of a temporary fix.
The big thing is the lack of interaction. I've written about it previously but the way that these platforms boil things down to a simple "like button" is one of the worst things to exist. The bar to interaction is so incredibly low and all it means is that to have a genuine conversation with someone, you need to make so much more of an effort. It's a horrible feedback loop that only exists to make you feel worse about yourself.
Reddit is another platform that I found myself frequenting quite a bit. Being able to subscribe to a niche community and just explore some of the most amazing posts I've ever seen was so lovely. I could explore webcomics, see some of the funniest videos, and read some wonderful stories, all in a single app. I love the platform and could still spend hours mindlessly scrolling through things. But that's where the problem is. Do I really want to be spending hours on a site where I'll be interacting with some very anonymous people? The only users I actively recognize are the ones who post comics and art. Even then the bar of interaction is very easily lost. With hundreds if not thousands of people commenting on a post, it's so easy to get lost in the noise.
I just find myself craving something that these websites are unable to offer me, so I've just stopped using them. I've managed to convince myself to stop using these services over the past few months by just internally screaming about how I shouldn't be using them and how much I hate being on these platforms. Somehow I've managed to get this to work and at most I spend a few seconds lingering on the app as I open it on my phone out of habit. I should probably remove them from my home screen, but we'll see how that goes.
I think I can manage without Reddit just fine, but one of the things I miss about Twitter is just seeing some of the amazing art, seeing people post something they're passionate about, or just seeing a funny image or video. People seem more real on Twitter than nearly any other platform which is kind of a weird thing to say. Sure Bluesky and Mastodon exist now along with whatever flavor of microblog you want, but it's hard to capture the magic that once was. I go back and forth between weighing the good and the bad and I never know which way to lean. I might go back to using it, but definitely, a lot less often than I used to.
The effect that this little experiment has had on my life is something that I'm not sure I was too prepared for. By blocking out all of the noise, I'm left with only a few of the vices I once had. Nearly all of my time in the past decade-plus has been spent on Discord (previously Skype before Discord existed), YouTube, and Twitch. Discord and Twitch are platforms designed around interaction and I thrive on it. I know how to limit my time on YouTube and Twitch, and while I do love interacting with people on Discord, I just have a lot more time now. You don't realize how much time of your day is wasted on doom-scrolling until you actively give it up.
I've also just kind of stopped reading articles that were once previously suggested to me on my news feed. I legitimately don't care for 99% of it. Most things are clickbait, and the ones that aren't are things that don't interest me. For me to find something that I want to know or learn about, I need to actively seek it out and not passively absorb it, which has made for a huge improvement in my life.
What's really thrown me for a loop is that my phone has become so much less important to me. I still use it constantly to talk to friends and family with Whatsapp and Discord. And I still get notifications from Twitter and Instagram from people I care about. However, this past week, I've spent maybe 5 minutes tops on my previous vices. Sure I still spend plenty of time on YouTube, but I've done that for the better part of two decades now. Where else will I find documentaries on computers that haven't been talked about in 30 years? I find myself engaging with friends more and more. I've been actively reading more books, playing more games, listening to more music, and watching shows and movies.
I've reclaimed the internet and turned it into the place I want to experience. At least temporarily. While I don't think this little bubble of mine will last, I'm enjoying it while I can. I'll strive to keep posting on all of my websites in the meantime. Being on a platform that I'm in full control of is pretty neat, and while I'm working on a way to interact with you, dear reader, I do hope I've motivated you in some way to reach out to me if the need arises.
As always, I will leave you with a few words.
Be A Real Person