Well, that didn't last long...
So, mid last year I set about on this social experiment for myself, where I would abstain from social media for 12 months and see how I felt along the way. I wanted a platform to write about it, whether or not anyone read it didn’t particularly phase me as we live in this hyper-connected world, hell bent on self promotion through social media, and the whole point was to not be on social media, so who would I really tell?
Anyway, as you can see by the lack of posting since around June last year, the whole thing fell in a heap. I ended up back at work on ships with internet speed akin to 2005 dial-up, 4 hr limited daily usage and a workload/relationship with work that didn’t quite go hand-in-hand with my lofty ambitions to write about my experience.
Edit: I ended up being off Instagram & Facebook for around 10.5 months. I found myself pursuing a thru hike which had fantastic resources and opportunities to connect via facebook, so I logged back in and have been using it sporadically since April. I lurk on instagram occasionally, and I think perhaps I will just use it to connect with my substack…who knows!
For those interested, the 10 months without socials was great. I highly recommend not engaging in the world of social media. I didn’t miss out on much, and where I did miss things, by the time I realised, it was kinda too late to be bothered by it. I had to accept a pretty hefty dosage of detachment and the fact that people weren’t just going to text me all the things they were posting on social media. I wasn’t ‘in’ on certain jokes, I missed hearing about all the little things, but I also got to focus a little more on my own life, the one that was unfolding right in front of me, rather than on a screen. Overall, I found value in that…
Now, here I am, on this September evening, still on board a ship, just one with better internet, hearing the jazz music coming through the floor from the main lounge below, while I am supposed to be spending my evening writing a lecture that I’ll be presenting in 5 days…but I’m on Substack, writing a post because that’s where I want my energy to go.
It’s been a big year for me on a multitude of levels, and some aspects of my life feel like they’ll never be the same, while others feel like they don’t have the propensity to ever change. I am navigating what all of that means, and I want to do so through the art of writing, so here I am…
I hope I am here more frequently than my earlier aspirations had me.
Please enjoy this photograph of the sea. I’d make the image smaller, but I have no idea how, nor the patience to work it out. Soz. I think it looks normal size on the phone and just appears enormous on the desktop version….my bad!