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I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going

2019-01-08 · letter vlog · John · 3:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

A month into his year without social media, John reports he is less anxious, has more time and gets bored into having thoughts, but misses it and finds that quitting platforms fixes nothing: the internet is not the problem, his internet is; his Crash Course on navigating digital information helped more.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — One month off Reddit, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: why, and the blocking tools on computer and phone

  • ★★★ Tomorrow John will be one month into his year without social media; he left the platforms because he couldn't regulate his time or experience there and checked his phone hundreds of times a day. — 00:00:03 · Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
  • ★★ On his computer John uses a Chrome extension called Stay Focused, whose "nuclear option" blocks certain websites completely. — 00:00:20
  • ★★ On his phone John used Screen Time to disable Safari and the App Store and deleted all the attention-grabbing apps. — 00:00:29

00:00:44 — What he has learned: compulsive typing of site names, fractured attention, less anxiety, more time, better informed, boredom

  • ★ His phone still orders food, hails rides and more: basically a magic wand that just can't tell him how people feel about Will Smith in the Aladdin movie. (playful) — 00:00:44
  • ★★★ John learned that, without being aware of it, he typed Reddit, Twitter and Facebook into a web browser dozens of times a day. — 00:00:58 · Reddit, Twitter, Facebook
  • ★★ He had not realised how fractured his attention had become, or how often he answered the first hint of boredom by going to Reddit. — 00:01:10 · Reddit
  • ★★★ A month in, John is happier, or at least less anxious. — 00:01:20
  • ★★ Social media makes John feel an itch only it can scratch; turning it off has mostly cured the itch. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John has more time: he wrote an Art Assignment video about Agnes Martin, and spends more time with his family. — 00:01:33 · The Art Assignment
  • ★★ John spends less time on the news but might be better informed, for instance knowing much more about what is happening in Yemen. (hedged) — 00:01:43
  • ★★ Reading his hometown newspaper, John feels he understands his IRL community a little better. — 00:01:50
  • ★★★ John is bored more often; boredom is unpleasant, but if he lets himself be bored he has thoughts, and since he can't tweet them, they are his own. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Leaving the social internet hasn't been magical: John misses it more than expected, such as funny Reddit soccer threads and camaraderie on Twitter. — 00:02:10 · Reddit, Twitter

00:02:12 — Drawbacks: he misses it; quitting platforms fixes nothing; his internet is the problem

  • ★★★ Eliminating platforms fixes nothing: it neither unfractures his attention nor makes his information diet healthier, since other websites feed without nourishing and distract without enriching. — 00:02:26

    “feed without nourishing and distract without enriching”

  • ★★★ John needs the internet on his computer, but the internet is not the problem; his internet is, and for it to change, he needs to change. — 00:02:45

    “the internet is not the problem. My internet is the problem.”

00:02:55 — Crash Course series on navigating digital information; staying off social media; sign-off

  • ★★★ For the next 10 weeks John hosts a Crash Course series on navigating digital information, with an evidence-based approach to judging online information and spotting misinformation. — 00:02:58 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John has sometimes believed he was immune to misinformation, but has come to understand that such a belief makes you more susceptible to it. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ The tools from the series improved how John researches and what he ingests, more than any blocked website; he hopes viewers check it out. — 00:03:24 · Crash Course
  • ★★★ John will stay off social media for the rest of the year; he doesn't know that he recommends it generally, but it is necessary for him to discover what lies beyond boredom. — 00:03:30

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description notes John also wrote an Art Assignment video about the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility and art that survives where we cannot. — video description · The Art Assignment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: boredom · media literacy

Also: People: Agnes Martin · Will Smith

Projects: Crash Course

Organizations: Facebook · Instagram · Reddit · Twitter

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: misinformation · smartphone

Places: Yemen

Products: App Store · Google Chrome · Safari · Screen Time · StayFocusd

Only in the description or credits: The Art Assignment

Also centred on media literacy: My Information Diet

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