Why does everything take so long when I know what I want?
It seems like the goal of a lot of companies who make stuff on the internet is to make you scroll through whatever they have as long as possible. I think that’s rude.
Imagine a restaurant with a never ending menu. Imagine a car lot with infinite cars. If you offer a good choice, why do you need a million of them?
I like certain things. Why do I need to look at everything? Who has that kind of time?
Experience without social media, so far.
I’ve been away from social media for a few months and the spare time is nice. I am better at bass, djembe, and guitar since my departure. But my mind is slower too. It’s nice. I’m not constantly changing channels. I like spending time thinking or playing one thing. I’m not just rapidly cycling through one idea after another. Again, like flipping channels.
I’m gonna’ say it, social media is a lot like drugs.
Social media is a lot like meth without having to actually buy from drug dealers. It’s a great proposition if you’re like me. I loved meth. Don’t care what anyone says, I think it’s wonderful shit. I wouldn’t live very long or happily if I chose to do it. But I’ve certainly thought about it. Sure, I’ve seen folks’ lives ruined from it. But I never got that far with the stuff. I always had fun with it. But I realized I wasted serious time, money, and even relationships with it and felt bad. So I stopped. But it’s a hell of a drug. Just being honest. 🤷
(also, see a dr. if you are having issues about that. we need you.)
I had a similar falling out with socials. I enjoy many aspects of it. I like talking and getting responses and even scrolling..weird, right? But I felt like I was wasting my time. That’s important to me. I want to use what little time I have more wisely. So I quit. It turns out, much like meth, I was changing my brain. Don’t know if it will ever all come back. Over 20 years of unfettered access to the internet takes its toll. Wish we talked about that.
Are we really choosing anything? It’s kinda’ creepy.
I remember mostly scrolling. It was fatiguing yet I could not keep from doing it. The only thing I was doing was rejecting every pitch the algorithms threw at me. If algorithms were good pitchers, we wouldn’t have to scroll so much. Unless, scrolling was what they wanted us to do, why?
It isn’t so we have choices, it’s so they can collect more data. They aren’t providing us a service. We’re the batteries for their whole outfit. They dress collecting our data up as a way to keep in touch. We get our friends to try it, they get their data too. The government is even using them to harvest data on immigrants, (WIRED, sorry if it is pay-gated for you. I donate to journalism I enjoy and just realized it may be a silly pay-gate). We’ve had correspondence forever. Socials aren’t about that. This endless scrolling thing doesn’t work for us, it works for them. It’s not choices for deciding what we actually want. It’s a questionnaire to help them sell something to everyone, or catch them. After that thought occurred to me, I couldn’t scroll anymore. I no longer felt cool, I felt like a tool.
It’s about respect.
No one is going to stand up for your time except you. Humans are pretty bad at realizing other folks are busy, or not being busy (totally viable option too). I can’t think of a single company that respects that.
I respect your time because I respect mine. It’s not much. But it’s the least I can do. I don’t see you as rats in a maze. I use intuition not algos. There’s loads of folks like me too.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
I’m not a blip in a scroll anymore. I do an entry or two on my site, then go about my day. It’s been a lot better without rejecting every thing that comes up at a steady clip almost like doing some editor’s job for them. I see a lot of what I actually want, not much else. Not a bad way to be.
Return to home
I hope you are enjoying a good beverage and a sound mind. I love my fretless bass. I am very excited to record with it in August. I have it close by the whole day or strapped on my neck. I love playing tunes into the iPad for quick ideas. Nothing official, just a happy minute I share occasionally. To me, this sounds happy. I hope that for everyone, pretty much.