Take a digital detox (and reduce social media)
A digital detox does not mean having to never go online again. It just means taking some time away from the laptop or phone, to spend time reading, walking, sleeping.
Once back, you can then set new habits like ‘no phones after dinner’ or ‘no scrolling for news at night or checking messages when you wake up).
Also read about eco-friendly search engines (this post also lists free extensions to stop online ads)
You can set your digital detox to any length you like. You could have an evening off, or even a whole weekend or week. Set your phone to only essential notifications, charge it outside your bedroom, and use a real alarm clock – or sleep in!
In her book The Joy of Missing Out, writer Christina Crook decided to take a 31-day Internet fast, to simply learn about a world that wasn’t totally revolved around the web. She did this after hearing a ‘man of the cloth’ blessing Blackberries (the phones, not the fruits).
She did eventually go back to working alone, but set her own rules on how and when to do so. And felt a lot better for it.
Is social media stealing your happiness?
Jaron Lanier was born to a Nazi concentration camp survivor (as a blonde, his mother survived by pretending she was Aryan, and walking out). His father’s family escaped from Ukraine to avoid violent riots. Jaron himself used to work in Silicon Valley.
Then for his mental health, he gave up social media. He now spends his time offline as much as possible, which includes playing some of his collection of 1000 ancient musical instruments!
Like most of us, he is concerned that our world now seems to be controlled by not just social media, but a few powerful people who use it. Named one of the world’s 50 greatest thinkers, his take is interesting:
He says that Trump may still have won the Presidency without his own Truth social media, but likely would not have won without Facebook support. Lanier believes that Trump is a narcissist and bully, who is so insecure he has a social media addiction, as it’s important to him to know that ‘people like him’.
And that’s why he keeps posting lots of nonsense (in CAPITAL LETTERS!) whenever he has practically any thought.
And the only way to deal with this, is what you do with any narcissist (who is never going to change). You simply walk away:
Trump supporters seem nuts to me, and they say liberals seem nuts to them. But it’s wrong to say we’ve grown apart, and can’t understand each other. What’s really going on, is that we see less than ever before of what others are seeing. So we have less opportunity to understand each other. Jaron Lanier
Privacy Bee has a guide on how to delete social media accounts.
Lanier’s 10 reasons to give up social media
- You lose your free will (algorithms make you predictable and manipulated)
- It’s the only way to resist (nothing else is effective)
- It’s making you into an arsehole (encourages attention-seeking behaviour)
- It’s undermining truth (misinformation spreads faster)
- It’s destroying capacity for empathy (‘likes’ reduces human interaction)
- It makes what you say meaningless (it only cares about soundbites)
- It’s making you unhappy (constant social comparison)
- It stops economic dignity (data is harvested for profit)
- It’s making politics impossible (algorithms create tribalism)
- It hates your soul (you are seen as a predictable robot)
More of Jaron’s societal wisdom
Funding a civilisation through advertising, is like trying to get nutrition, by connecting a tube from one’s anus to one’s mouth.
If money is flowing to advertising instead of musicians, journalists, and artists, then a society is more concerned with manipulation than truth or beauty. If content is worthless, then people will start to become empty-headed and contentless.
We cannot have a society, in which, if two people wish to communicate the only way that can happen is if it’s financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them.
Celebrities who refuse to use social media
There’s no rule that says you or even famous people have to use social media. There are quite a few celebrities who never use it all. Be inspired by those who lead their lives in privacy:
- Benedict Cumberbatch has said that social media is a place ‘where people either want to marry you or kill you’.
- Harrison Ford has never used social media in his life.
- Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz don’t use social media, preferring to keep their professional lives separate. Daniel says ‘I can categorically state that I won’t be going on social media ever in my life’.
- Olivia Colman has never used social media. She has heard there are people pretending to be her. But says as she is not on it, she can’t see it, so just doesn’t worry about it.
- Keira Knightley once joined social media, and was so creeped out by it, she deleted her accounts within 24 hours.
- Sandra Bullock (the woman men love and women want to be like) simply says she has better things to do with her time.
- Mila Kunis (the actress wife of Ashley Kutcher) says no-one is interested in whether she’s visiting the bathroom!
- George Clooney says he is always saying stupid things by accident, and doesn’t want to do this on a worldwide platform!
- Cate Blanchett values her privacy, and also does not want to talk of her affluent life, as it could make others feel bad.
I didn’t know what Facebook was. And now that I do know what it is, I have to say – it sounds like a huge waste of time. The late great Betty White (‘Rose’ from The Golden Girls)
Who owns the main social media platforms?
Elon Musk (who has recently been interfering in UK politics by encouraging people to vote for Restore, a far-right party) owns X (used to be Twitter).
Mark Zuckerberg owns both Facebook and Instagram.
It’s less their political views or mindsets are concerning: more that half the world now is ‘controlled’ by two men who seem to have more power than the world’s elected politicians. And the former is trying to persuade people how to vote, and giving money to campaigns outside the country where he lives.
There is something empowering in getting rid of big media trying to control you. Social media is driven by algorithms to learn how you vote or buy things, it’s all very ‘big brother’.
Each second you spend scrolling, your data is being collected and sold to someone else. In an bid to deliver ‘you’ to advertisers. Just imagine if millions just unplugged and lived private lives.
One day you will look back and recall all the time you spent on social media. And wonder why you didn’t invest that time in someplace else. Germany Kent
The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world. And admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your ‘likes’ is the new smoking’. Bill Maher
Every app we open is a doorway into someone else’s mind. And sometimes that’s more dangerous than any virus. Jaron Lanier
