It’s been a long time since i’ve blogged. Since 2020, I have watched plenty of shows, we have gone through Trump and Biden and now back to Trump. I started a job, quit my job, and started a second job. I’ve moved out of my parents’ apartment and moved back, into what is now my own apartment. And I found what looks like my life partner.
Life moves fast. I hope that life has treated you as kindly, reader. We live in an era where “buzz” lasts a few days, where scandals last a week at most, where every day presents us with new worries. We are constantly bombarded with awful ‘news’ from every side, whether it’s radio, newspapers, podcasts, or your weird schizo uncle on social media.
And with the advent of ‘reels’, or ‘stories’, short form looping or auto-scrolling content created to capture our attention, it feels like content all over has decreased in quality and become centered on getting our eyes on the screen, even if we don’t watch the full show, or don’t watch any individual creators’ content in depth.
I think it’s important, more than ever before, to take a breath and re-focus on ourselves, and see what’s actually important in our lives. Am I actually getting informed when I listen to Joe Rogan, Phillip De Franco, Moistcritikal? Am I even getting entertained? Or am I watching because i’m afraid of being bored, afraid of being alone with my thoughts?
Am I really staying on Facebook to stay in touch with my friends, when I don’t see any of my friends’ content and barely message them?
Or are we using these platforms out of habit?
There’s been a trend for the past 10+ years to do a “social media detox“. Maybe it’s the term detox that irks me, since that usually gets used by people with a poor understanding of biology (there’s no such thing as ‘getting rid of toxins‘).
People will take a week, or a month, off social media, as if it was a drug – and yet come right back to it, as if their life has meaningfully changed.
I don’t think social media detoxes work. I don’t think treating social media as a drug works, either, and it’s not a healthy frame of mind. But I do think the pretense of staying on social media, the carrot on a stick it uses, that it’s about staying connected with your friends and family, is right on the money.
I think the antidote to our fast modern world has been close to us all along – it’s our friends and our families. It’s the people around us. And you don’t need social media to connect with them.
So here’s my suggestion: in 2025, let’s do what we should’ve been doing for the past decade. Slow down for a second, call your parents, call your friends.
Talk to your friends on Discord, send a text to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Say hello to your neighbor, or to that person you hung out with in high school or in university. I can guarantee you they will all appreciate it, even if they don’t respond right away. I know I do.
Go to a party, ask your bestie if they’d like to go swimming, or if they’d like to walk around, or go on a hike.
And if you don’t have anyone to talk to – leave a comment, send me a message. I’ll talk to you.
Humans have a fundamental need for social interaction – it’s built into us, we don’t have a choice. But we do have a choice in how we feed that need.
So let’s make 2025 a year of actual change. Let’s make it a year where we understand each other more, not less.
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