Anti-Social Update
10 May 2023
Following my last post, I’ve made some changes to the way in which I consume social media.
I was feeling a bit shitty about social media. Honestly, I wasn’t getting a lot from it, so I decided to make some changes to the way I do things. In my last post on the topic I said:
I don’t think I could follow in the footsteps of Nicolas and Manu [removing social media completely], as I do enjoy my time on the Fedi…sometimes. But something has to change.
Well, something has changed and, true to form, I’ve contradicted myself. I’ve pretty much gone full Nicolas/Manu and stopped using social media.
I’ve cancelled my Micro.blog subscription, and redirected the Mastodon compatible account to my Fosstodon account. I’ve also reduced the amount of people I’m following on Fosstodon from 350 to 40; I’ve also hidden all replies and boosts, so I only see what those 40 people post.
More yet
While the steps above helped, I still wasn’t satisfied. So I decided to take a quiet sabbatical from the Fediverse. I removed the app from my devices, and decided to just see what happened.
It’s nice. Like, really nice.
I rarely pick my phone up now and I certainly don’t doom-scroll. I did write a post yesterday that was asking for blog recommendations, because - you guessed it - instead of doom-scrolling, I’m either ignoring my phone completely, or reading RSS feeds.
It’s much more enjoyable.
My new “social” approach
Honestly, I’m still working out what this will look like long term. I’m still involved in Fosstodon, and intend to remain so, after speaking with my co-founder, Mike.
I’ll still be posting links to posts I publish here, and will continue to interact with my followers, but that will be when I decide to check, rather than reflexively opening an app every time I look at my phone.
I’m also thinking about unfollowing the remaining 40 people so that Mastodon becomes a mechanism for conversation around the posts I publish here, rather than a doom-scrolling shit show.
Isn’t that a little selfish, though?
Maybe. But honestly, I don’t really care at this point. I really enjoy the engagement I have from my posts here, whether that’s via email (using the button below) or via conversations on Mastodon in reply to my posts.
I’m basically doing things the same, I’m just cutting out my problem with doom-scrolling. I doubt much will change for you, except for the occasional delay in my replying on Mastodon. But again, who really cares? 🤷♂️
Let’s see what happens…