Boredom helps.

Following all the social distancing rules so as not to get infected with Corona is one thing, staying sane is another. 

I know one thing, for me, social media isn’t doing it.

‘They’ say that social media is a good way of staying in touch with loved ones etc, is it? Whatever happened to giving them a call? Do we need social media to stay in contact? Not really, it’s a myth. We don’t need social media to stay in touch we have phones, zoom calls, or Skype. It’s just a ploy to get us to scroll up and down FB, Twitter, and Instagram and the likes, the longer they keep us hooked to their screen the better it is for the data fishing algorithms. They milk us for data like farmers' milk cows.

I recently asked myself -in all honesty- to write down what benefit or good I get from being on Twitter for example. First I tried to kid myself that I get news updates and get to read the views of people I respect etc, all nonsense, of course, I can follow those people and news media on their websites, I don’t really need to be on Twitter for that. 90% of the time on Twitter is just spent scrolling through the tweets of others who are trying to be funny, critical or hateful, getting into an argument on Twitter never changes anyone’s point of view, it just increases the frustration and hate. 

It is a shit pool that takes over your day if you aren’t careful.

So why be ‘on it’? Well, it started out as a good way to have some sort of ‘advertisement’ as an artist, all my colleagues are on it at some level, so it’s a feeling of wanting to be part of it, to be recognized, appreciated or popular. It is basically an electronic ego trip. Does it do anything to improve my life? No. 

I post something on Twitter and sometimes get a few likes or retweets and that gives a short sharp dopamine hit, but that’s it basically. How many of the 17.000 followers I have on Twitter do I actually know? About 20 at most. 

 The last few weeks I spend less and less time on Twitter, how does that feel? Well, it feels like I’m not missing anything. The time I used to spend scrolling through Twitter I now spend having long reads and staring through the window sunk in thought, getting to know myself, and what I really think again. Because if there is one thing that social media is good at then it's stopping deep thought about problems, ideas, creativity, and what about good old daydreaming. Social media stops us getting ‘sunk in thought’ or daydreaming (the source of most creativity) it demands an immediate reaction, it needs us to click the meaningless thumbs up, it’s an internal competition of likes, friends and followers that takes away meaningful reactions. 

The dilemma is, that we are all hooked on this drip-feed of bullshit, or most of us. If you are not on social media then you cease to exist, especially as an artist who is never on the old TV, or at least that is the feeling we are given. So what to do? Use it for what it’s worth, be on it but not ‘of’ it. Use it to put stuff out there, but don’t be addicted or under the impression that it will improve your life. Social media is there to be used, don’t let it use you. This being said I will now post this little old text to my FB and blog page, turn off the laptop and go outside for a long walk, you know the old 3D real world. 

If you want to give your life more content, you probably will have to sort that out yourself, without social media, trust yourself, use it when you think you can then turn it off. 

Now, where are my walking shoes?