Excellent essay Patrick. You nailed it with "what used to be called “clickbait” has now morphed into “engagement bait” - what boils my blood, and something I'm writing my next essay about, is how all of this has resulted in so much nonsense content flooding our online spaces. Your tips are excellent - cannot agree more with having a good adblocker and regularly purging your email subscriptions!
Thanks for pulling these threads together, Patrick. I had not heard the Reed quote before. Over the last year I've also been setting aside time to attenuate the volume on social media (haven't touched Facebook in years, but also turned off Twit-x and never got sucked into SnapChat or TikTok universes). I've selected a few folks to follow intentionally (you are there with Ted Gioia and Heather Cox Richardson). We don't cable TV, but have a premium YouTube to get rid of ads. Keeping that feed clean is a chore - but like you use Instagram to follow art, we tap into makers and artists to get inspired to actually DO art. In fact today, election day, we're listening to physical media we own and doing art, being intentional to create as much or more than we consume ;) Keep the faith!
Mark, I can only imagine that keeping our feeds (and hearts and heads) clear of the news spew and focusing on creating instead of consuming will not only be critical to your and my health in the coming months and years but seems exactly the right prescription for what ails our impossibly broken society. Thanks for the reminder.
Fortunately I became very aware of the harmful effects of Antisocial Media (I steadfastly refuse to use the misnomer label called “social media”) through observations of Facemash (a vulgar and demeaning female rating system) and then TheFacebook.
My label has always been Fakebook for their hideous product, privacy invasions, and information control/censorship.
I’m continuously amazed that The Social Dilemma has remained viewable on Netflix due to the purposely planned and controlling design of these and related similar products.
However, even the analogous campaigns against smoking cigarettes and their related respiratory illnesses has failed to prevent lifelong destructive habits. The Social Dilemma can be viewed as the modern streaming version of a static billboard used against smokers. The information is widely available, yet the data is typically rejected.
I use most of your recommended techniques to unplug, even down to only using ASCII based email to prevent HTML tracking pixels, etc.
Excellent essay Patrick. You nailed it with "what used to be called “clickbait” has now morphed into “engagement bait” - what boils my blood, and something I'm writing my next essay about, is how all of this has resulted in so much nonsense content flooding our online spaces. Your tips are excellent - cannot agree more with having a good adblocker and regularly purging your email subscriptions!
Cheers, Caoilainn. Love where you're coming from with brave enough.
Thanks for pulling these threads together, Patrick. I had not heard the Reed quote before. Over the last year I've also been setting aside time to attenuate the volume on social media (haven't touched Facebook in years, but also turned off Twit-x and never got sucked into SnapChat or TikTok universes). I've selected a few folks to follow intentionally (you are there with Ted Gioia and Heather Cox Richardson). We don't cable TV, but have a premium YouTube to get rid of ads. Keeping that feed clean is a chore - but like you use Instagram to follow art, we tap into makers and artists to get inspired to actually DO art. In fact today, election day, we're listening to physical media we own and doing art, being intentional to create as much or more than we consume ;) Keep the faith!
Mark, I can only imagine that keeping our feeds (and hearts and heads) clear of the news spew and focusing on creating instead of consuming will not only be critical to your and my health in the coming months and years but seems exactly the right prescription for what ails our impossibly broken society. Thanks for the reminder.
Fortunately I became very aware of the harmful effects of Antisocial Media (I steadfastly refuse to use the misnomer label called “social media”) through observations of Facemash (a vulgar and demeaning female rating system) and then TheFacebook.
My label has always been Fakebook for their hideous product, privacy invasions, and information control/censorship.
I’m continuously amazed that The Social Dilemma has remained viewable on Netflix due to the purposely planned and controlling design of these and related similar products.
However, even the analogous campaigns against smoking cigarettes and their related respiratory illnesses has failed to prevent lifelong destructive habits. The Social Dilemma can be viewed as the modern streaming version of a static billboard used against smokers. The information is widely available, yet the data is typically rejected.
I use most of your recommended techniques to unplug, even down to only using ASCII based email to prevent HTML tracking pixels, etc.
I salute you, Wolfgang. ASCII-based email is hardcore.