So, I’m taking some time off of social media. I’ve done it once before, and the result was better than I could’ve expected. It’s a bit of an outrage-reset, if you will. So much of social media, any more, tends to be all about The Next Big Outrage. Peripheral, meaningless discussion turns into blathering, pointless rage (in the case of my feeds, nerd rage) at the drop of a hat… or quote… or piece of cover artwork.
It gets exhausting.
I’m on social media to have fun and connect with like-minded people. On balance, social media is a wildly positive experience for me. I’ve met some very good friends and had some wonderful interactions with some of my favorite creators of art on Facebook and Twitter. So, when it reaches a point where I start feeling put upon by my feeds, I know it’s time to take a step back.
Intellectually, I know that my (carefully curated) feeds are a positive force in my life. Emotionally, though, they can start to feel like a slog – an anger-ridden pit of hostility. And mostly, it’s because anger is easy. Ranting is the most simplistic response to stimuli. Anger is faster and more instantly gratifying than reason.
And even though I try to be reasonable – to look deeper into an issue before blowing my hate-wad all over the internet – I still find myself being sucked into the negativity vortex without really knowing it’s happened. I’ll hear a piece of news and start typing up my knee-jerk response, then immediately delete it (on a good day) or hit “post” without thinking (on the worst days).
It’s a hole that’s not easy to climb out of by degrees, because I’ll have sunk so far before noticing the pull that I can’t just inch my way back out. Hence, the break, a cold-turkey cutoff.
Although I’m finding the timing of this one to be a bit awkward. Initially, I picked April as my month off for two reasons:
First, absolutely despise April Fool’s Day. I’ve never been much for trickery to get a laugh at another’s expense, but before the internet April Fool’s Day was at least mostly tolerable. A truly good AFD prank use to require effort and planning, but now this stupid fucking day just turns the entire internet into an utterly untrustworthy cesspool. So I decided to skip it.
Second, I’m taking a vacation at the end of the month, and I wanted to do it without social media being involved. I wanted to focus on being away, to engage in experiences that were just for me and my wife, rather than feeling the need to share them with all of my Friendz and Followerz.
But here’s where it gets awkward: Emerald City ComiCon just wrapped up. For the first time in a while, I managed to meet a TON of new friends at the convention. I met fans of Trade Secrets, online buddies from Twitter, some of my favorite comic creators, and a group of speculative fiction authors with whom I’ve had varying levels of online interaction. And now, just after I met all these people, and have a chance to reinforce those friendships and interactions with social media (the whole point of social media, IMO)… I bail.
Part of taking breaks like this is learning to unplug, and learning that my social life isn’t going to fall apart when I do. My hope is that, in a world of instant gratification and bite-sized interactions, the new friends I’ve made and relationships I’ve kindled will still be strong when I return. For right now, though… I need some time for me.
So, I’ll be back in a month. In the meantime, if you really want to interact with me, feel free to buy a copy of my book, Construct, and – if you like it – leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Or, you can e-mail me. One of the two (although, I prefer the former).
