Social Media - Reboot Report

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In my last posting, I wasn't entirely forthcoming. In addition to significantly reducing my interaction with social media, I concurrently limited my consumption of the news media. I'm not sure which of these variables contributed to the recent, positive changes in my mental state, though I can confidently say that I've enjoyed more clarity and contentment in the past month than I have in recent memory.

I've long prided myself in being informed by engaging with trusted media outlets. Whether listening to legacy radio news programs or reading articles in established newspapers, I have long taken the time to track what's going on in my neighborhood, country and the world. And this is still important to me. On the other hand,  I was spending an increasing amount of time scrolling mindlessly through the news. And even though I'm not doom-scrolling to the extent that I did a few years back, I still found myself spending an inordinate amount of time engaging with the news. It appeared as though I developed a habit of consulting the news apps on my phone whenever I felt uncertain or insecure - particularly when the news was on a trajectory that I felt was discouraging or contrary to my philosophical views. Over the past few years, I periodically constructed boundaries around my news consumption, though they inevitably fell by the wayside whenever I perceived that hard stuff was going on. As part of my social media reboot, I not only deleted the social media apps from all my devices - I also deleted the news apps from them.


I found that my engagement with both news and 
social media had some of the qualities of 
addiction.

I felt a bit traitorous deleting the NY Times app, as I greatly appreciate the Times' commitment to the craft of journalism and quality writing. Unfortunately,  I found that I was almost more powerless in resisting the Siren-song of well-written news reports than in resisting the algorithm-curated ramblings of social media. And so I deleted all the various news and social-media apps in favor of a potentially-dumber smart-phone.

In lieu of instant, 24/7 access to the news, I'm now relying on a weekly news magazine to help me stay informed. I feel it's important to stay informed, though I've found that instant-access to news supports addictive consumption patterns in me - behaviors that I'd like to extinguish. Now, whenever I feel that itch of feeling uncertain or insecure about the trajectory of the world, I practice what I preach; turning toward those feelings, neither trying to push them away, nor chasing after them. I've been enjoying far more contentment, and when I do sit down to read the news, I'm enjoying holding an artifact (paper!) in my hand far more than I enjoyed staring at a screen.

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