I realize that it might be a bit counterintuitive to talk about overusing social media on social media, but let’s talk about overusing social media on social media.
This has been weighing on my mind ever since Elon, who I will from this point forward refer to Incelus Maximus, Sooooper Geeeeeenius, bought Twitter. It’s clear to me that he wishes to normalize the kind of toxic wasteland you’d find on 4chan or 8chan or worse. Yes, I’m pretty sure there’s worse even if I’ve never seen it AND WHY WOULD I WANT TO SEE IT? This rant is about not social media-ing, for crying out loud.
Grover Norquist, on an NPR interview in 2001 famously said “I’m not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” That’s what Incelus Maximus is doing to Twitter, or X, or whatever he needs to call it to make himself feel like a man. He bought the playground we all use, and he’s systematically taking away the swings, the slides, the merry-go-round, and the see-saw, until it’s a bare patch of land that he can pave over.
As a result, I’ve been roaming around all the new playgrounds to see what I like, but then I had a thought. Why am I doing that? Why do I feel like I have to find a new place? I’m not sticking around the old one much longer, but who says I have to *go* anywhere?
I know, I’m telling you this on a podcast that I also post to TikTok and YouTube. Not the LEAST bit hypocritical. Hear me out. There’s a difference between creating content and consuming it. One actually puts something out into the universe, the other will take your time and your health if you’re not careful. I think one of my problems has been the mindless consumption of social media instead of sitting down at my desk and creating something. You know how this goes, right? Sit down, pull out your phone, open a soul-stealing app, and then the next thing you know the kids have Masters degrees and you’re in a home needing a wipe and the nurse can’t understand front to back like the rest of the staff.
The only solution that makes sense to me is to create before I consume. I will pick a home for social media, but create my content primarily for my own website instead of giving the techbro of the month the fruits of my labor.
On a completely unrelated note, there should be some labor. Some kind of labor.
Any kind of labor.