Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I recently chatted with author Tess Whitehurst on my Queens and Crones podcast. What a great convo! I adore Tess and the magical world she's manifested for herself that she so generously shares with others. We caught up on life in general after we were finished recording, and she shared with me that she'd fully stepped away from social media. (You can read about it here.) During the convo she mentioned the book The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds And Our World as having a really strong influence on this decision. I had not read it but immediately purchased because I had to know more. I am still reading but so far, it's giving me much to consider.

I spend a LOT of time online - Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky are my current fave hangouts - and I'm either endlessly scrolling or responding to random posts. There's a lot of garbage in my feed these days: ads, political BS, and random bot-ish type posting meant to inflame, and it's become a chore to sift through and find relevant content. Tess's decision to withdraw led me to wonder how much my mood is affected by what I see on the screen, so I decided to do a little experiment. For a week, I removed all the social media apps from my phone and limited myself only to checking in on Facebook once a day.

It was a rough go at first. I felt like I was disconnected from the world and missing out on so much that was happening in my "friend" sphere. I hated it, but I persisted and buried myself into what I should've been doing: finishing up the writing of my third book, getting my spring garden started, and a deep home cleaning, among other things. After a few days, I felt a bit of a shift. The people with whom I was most closely connected kept in touch in other ways, and it was just as gratifying. I got my news from reliable sources and that allowed me to be more choosy in what I consumed. I got a lot of writing completed, plotted out my garden, and pulled off a two-day deep clean, which left me feeling really accomplished... and... HAPPY.

My week of social media limitation ended and I went back to my previous set up with apps on my phone. However, since returning to the social media feeds, I've done a lot of consolidating. I ditched a Facebook profile and two Instagram accounts, I shut down some Facebook pages, unfollowed a lot of pages, and unjoined quite a few groups. I thought about what is important to me and realized that I have been doing a good bit of work to keep up with people who are not as invested in keeping up with me. I am not resentful; people are free to interact with and be surrounded by people of their own choosing. However, I want to put my energy into those who reflect that interest back to me unprompted. Acquaintances are good, friends are better, and beloveds are best, right? I sure think so.

I also think Tess is on to something... but as good as it felt to be unburdened, I don't know if I'm ready to totally ditch everything right now like she's done. I am small beans and don't have her following and email list, and I do enjoy keeping up with the big wide world of magical people. From now on, though, perhaps I'll be an occasional lurker from my PC and not a mindless scroller on my phone. There is something to be said for balance, after all! What are your thoughts on ditching social media?

Keep well in these troubled times, friends.

Starry Blessings,