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Andrew's avatar

Congrats to you for getting off for good! I am not on social media, but I am a (too) avid consumer of the news. As in, "What happened the last 5 seconds in the world?" avid. While the interpersonal dynamics of social media is absent, the attention commodification and attention grabbing certainly is. I can certainly tell a difference in my personality on the days I engage in headline doomscrolling. I am angrier, more isolated, and unable to think deeply about anything of substance.

Interestingly, I do not find this to be true of print news. I guess there is only a finite amount of the newspaper in my hands, and I have to quit at some point. Perhaps I just need to suck in my gut and by that WSJ subscription.

Anyways, thanks for this 6 month social media sober update. There is hope yet for the rest of us!

Peter James's avatar

Thanks for reading! Yeah, I've subscribed to a few different publications just to try and stay on top of things. The only problem is their articles about broader cultural stuff are about a week or two downstream from the Internet, and by that point everyone has moved on. I'm just now learning about Hawk Tuah girl. But again, how important is that really?