Today I made a decision to take a pause on social media such as instagram, twitter and facebook for a week.
My blog (tumblr), pinterest and things like email are fine.
I remember when Instagram was becoming popular and people were talking about it and using it. Being the me that I am, I wasn’t in the loop. I didn’t know what it was all about, but I wasn’t curious either.
Eventually, one day I found interest and signed up. I haven’t looked back since and I don’t regret it. I’m in my own world and naturally do things at my own pace.
But now I find myself opening the app and browsing. Going to the explore page, that internally annoys me when I see things that are trending and utterly uninteresting to me. It’s psychological that it’s almost as if I feel something mystical will appear if I keep re-opening the app, but I know that its deeper than that for me. I’ve never been moved with the herd, I wasn’t made that way.
I was just re-opening the app, as a means to in some way temporarily fill in the gap for something else that I knew wasn’t vacant.
The emotional voidance and company voidance.
It was the same with whatsapp, when it was becoming popular I vaguely remember and I had no idea about what it was. Again, eventually one day I signed up and found it ok but have never been a fan so I deleted it.
I’ve always appreciated traditional text message.
When netflix was all that people spoke about, I had no idea what it was.
I didn’t think to ask, because of my indifference. Until one day I went into a store called HMV and asked “excuse me, what’s netflix?”
He told me and then I one day experienced it for myself.
Things like instagram, facebook and twitter are things that I like. Some more than the other, but they are also someone’s product and a means for someone to make money off of.
I don’t want to be the result of someone’s product.
Nor do I want to be someone’s Product. If you don’t realise what these things are capable of doing to you, you become a product and become the gullable muse of systems doing. My eyes are open and they are staying open.
Shortly after making this decision.. I remembered these cupcakes that I used to make when I was little. Tom and Jerry cupcakes, I could just smell and taste the icing now.. That’s the sort of thing you could do without the linger of social media there.
You can live. You can bake.