Tonight I once again suspended my activities on a large (anti)social media site. I’ve downloaded my account, so I have all the inanities I’ve posted, photos I seem to only have located therein, etc.

The account is deactivated now. Maybe, after some time has passed, I’ll delete it. Who knows?

It’s been an interesting ride, but I’ve been weaning myself for a few weeks, and I’m ready to go cold turkey again. My big concern is that I don’t know how to reach many of the folks I’ve come to be in touch with via the (anti)social media behemoth because that’s our only connection. But I can’t worry about that too much. I am, as they say, in the book if someone’s looking for me, I am not hiding underground.

Card and letter use via the mail has and will continue to increase. It takes more time, and it feels better to stick an envelop in the box on the corner and wonder what may happen – or not – and not have to worry about the interval before someone presses the “like” button. There’s no instant gratification in slow pace of the mails, and waiting around for such a thing creates its own stress.

What with all the hubbub and hoo-hah about the behemoth in recent weeks, it’s time to go. The technology is not evil, but the folks running the company have proven themselves time and again to unconscionably put their own growth and valuation above the impacts on the communities their product touches.

I hope you might consider joining me out here in the empty, less-connected wasteland of the rest of the internet. At the very least, I encourage you to spend less time on social media than you do now. You’ll be a better person for it. I say this with conviction, as I did this once for the better part of a year, and probably would have continued away from the beast but for the onset of life during a pandemic.

It’s served it’s purpose. It’s played me, I’ve played in it, and it’s time to grow up and move on. In the meantime, watch this space…