Seeking tales of thinky people who have unplugged
December 28, 2022 11:13 AM Subscribe
As I look to changing my use of time in 2023, I'm interested in learning from the examples of notable people who have limited or ended their use of online and social media.
Inspired by Jenny Odell's take in How to Do Nothing, danah boyd's email sabbaticals, and Maria Popover's work to explore information offline, I'm hoping to feed my brain in different ways this coming year. Who else does this that I can learn from? I'm interested in reading about people's habits, how and when and what they use the internet for, and what they are doing with the rest of their time as a human.
Inspired by Jenny Odell's take in How to Do Nothing, danah boyd's email sabbaticals, and Maria Popover's work to explore information offline, I'm hoping to feed my brain in different ways this coming year. Who else does this that I can learn from? I'm interested in reading about people's habits, how and when and what they use the internet for, and what they are doing with the rest of their time as a human.
In pre-social media times I think it was well known by fans of David Foster Wallace that he didn't own a tv for significant periods of his life because he found it so addicting. He had to go over to the neighbor's house to watch footage of 9/11 because he didn't have the ability to do so at home when he lived in Iowa. Unfortunately we will never get to hear his thoughts on social media of the day.
Lately one of my favorite DJ's quit social media. There's not a lot of writing about it because she is a DJ and connects with people via sound and music rather than writing but you can listen to her shows here to hear all about her decision making process - in between her excellent programming. Sadly she also quit DJing to focus on making music so I have no idea how it's all going for her!
posted by rdnnyc at 11:46 AM on December 28, 2022
Lately one of my favorite DJ's quit social media. There's not a lot of writing about it because she is a DJ and connects with people via sound and music rather than writing but you can listen to her shows here to hear all about her decision making process - in between her excellent programming. Sadly she also quit DJing to focus on making music so I have no idea how it's all going for her!
posted by rdnnyc at 11:46 AM on December 28, 2022
"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things."
https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
posted by dws at 11:53 AM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
posted by dws at 11:53 AM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Jason Kottke, arguably the original professional blogger, just came back after about 6 months away from the online world.
posted by COD at 1:15 PM on December 28, 2022
posted by COD at 1:15 PM on December 28, 2022
Check out Ezra Klein's interview of Richard Powers, Richard Powers on What We Can Learn From Trees whose daily routine now involves wandering into the forest for hours then writing.
posted by lookoutbelow at 2:30 PM on December 28, 2022
posted by lookoutbelow at 2:30 PM on December 28, 2022
I love James Acaster and am looking forward to reading his book, James Acaster's Guide to Quitting Social Media.
Good luck!
posted by terrapin at 5:20 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Good luck!
posted by terrapin at 5:20 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just seconding Cal Newport, who has written and spoken extensively about spending more, quality time offline and methods for doing so. One place he writes about it is here.
One thing he points out is that it's really helpful to have things, intentionally chosen, to fill the spaces that open up when you're spending less time online. For me anyway, being online has an element of addiction in it, and so just stopping can create anxiety, and you might initially wonder what to do with the time you now have. Also FOMO. So having meaningful plans, goals, projects in mind will help you know what to do. Being able to tolerate boredom and anxiety are also helpful because they may initially arise.
posted by swheatie at 9:18 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
One thing he points out is that it's really helpful to have things, intentionally chosen, to fill the spaces that open up when you're spending less time online. For me anyway, being online has an element of addiction in it, and so just stopping can create anxiety, and you might initially wonder what to do with the time you now have. Also FOMO. So having meaningful plans, goals, projects in mind will help you know what to do. Being able to tolerate boredom and anxiety are also helpful because they may initially arise.
posted by swheatie at 9:18 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Selena Gomez has been off social media for 4+ years.
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:19 PM on December 29, 2022
posted by MexicanYenta at 6:19 PM on December 29, 2022
« Older ISO of tales of writerly/journalistic conflict and... | What's the deal with polymer clay and home oven... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by box at 11:16 AM on December 28, 2022 [3 favorites]