An unpleasant churning feeling — that is the feeling I am left with after spending time on social media recently. That feeling is getting worse, but I don’t think the social media content is getting any more challenging per se.
Maybe I have just reached my own personal level of maximum toxicity?
Pausing here to consider that… Yeah, it feels like I have just emerged from a room of secondhand smoke. I’m covered in vitriol-flavored nicotine.
Okay, what can I do about it?
Knee jerk reaction: will I lose work?
No, I don’t think so. Though there are anecdotal stories of narrators getting jobs because of social media prowess, that’s all they are anecdotal. I think they seem more true from within the audiobook narrator fishbowl than they actually are.
Okay, I won’t lose work. Breathe. What else?
Keeping up with distant friends: will I lose touch?
No, I don’t think so. If we dump the Facebook attempt at rebranding the word Friend and reclaim it’s meaning as someone I know and care about, even for distant friends, I have good, solid, reliable ways that I stay in touch with them as well. The same goes for family.
Local events: will I miss out?
Yeah, this is the one. Too many of the people I know locally figure that posting about a get together online is essentially inviting everyone.
How do I deal with this?
Would ducking in/out weekly handle that? It might. And, after showing up at a few things and explaining that I am dropping off social media for a bit, that might get them to let me know about a get together some other way.
Alright, what else? News?
Not a problem. … Is that it? Wow, the only issue I would have is missing notifications of local get togethers. I can absolutely figure out a work around for that. Is it just me, or can social media start to feel stiflingly claustrophobic after a while?
This feeling is reminding me of something else tech related from way back in the day. When people started to realize that there was a lot more to the Internet than AOL/CompuServe/etc and started to head out onto the web.
In a way, Social Media has become AOL v2.0. Where they attempt to bring everything to you within their walled garden. They try to convince you that there is no reason to venture out beyond their walls. “Stay, be one of us. You don’t need to go anywhere else. Stay…”
But, back in the day, we did leave. And, maybe that is about to happen again? At first, I did need to duck back into AOL every once in a while, but that soon trailed off once I found my footing. I can definitely do that again.