That’s it, the social apps are gone from my phone. At least for now. I’m not necessarily opposed to the social networks but I notice my mind wandering more often than not these days and I don’t want to be drawn to these apps every time that happens. I’ve gotten rid of Instagram a couple of times now but Twitter has been with me from the start. It has never left my home screen since I installed it over 10 years(!) ago. That streak is ending today.
Instead, I’ll place my favorite writing app in the spot where Twitter used to be1 and see if that pushes me to write more tidbits here. I’m sure my muscle memory will involuntarily make me open the app. Perhaps I can put that energy to good use. We’ll see what happens.
I mostly use these social media apps to look around and rarely post anyway. Especially Twitter has become my main source of information but perhaps I’ll need some more quality sources that don’t have that much noise as well. My God, the noise of Twitter has become almost unbearable to me. It makes my mind scattered and unnecessarily clouded. I really want to connect with my immediate surroundings again.
Now this is not to say I feel superior in any way by doing this. Heck, I don’t think anybody cares that much even. I just like to have a registration of this divisive moment2. I’ll read blog posts, view photo essays, produce blog posts and photo essays, instead of all that other fleeting stuff. The ultimate goal is to train my mind to produce more cohesive, long form ideas and products. And when I don’t have anything of value to share, it’s fine to stare into the distance for a bit as well.