Yep, they’re gone. At least after the 30-day waiting period imposed by all three services. Turns out I had already deleted my Twitter accounts – Palmer says he remembers me doing it, though somehow I don’t. I was tremendously confused when I tried to log in around 11 this morning (noon DC time) and found that I couldn’t. Whatever, they’re all gone.
That’s not to say I’m off social media. I’m on Bluesky (and active!), YouTube, and Reddit. I spend a good chunk of time on all three and WAY too much time on YouTube. I need to back off of that one a little.
So what am I doing with my newfound relative freedom? Cuddling with dogs on the couch, reading a lot, and pretending that the current political situation doesn’t exist. I stopped watching the morning news when election coverage ramped up several months ago and switched to the Weather Channel (America’s Most Trusted News Source – srsly lol). My mornings are a lot more peaceful now sans politics.
Not that I can avoid politics – it’s everywhere, especially today. Luckily, YouTube knows not to show me much about Cinnamon Hitler (I have no idea where that term came from, but it’s my favorite), but right now it doesn’t really know what to show me at all besides self-improvement and anti-consumerism content, along with my current favorite, planes landing in high cross-winds (my favorite channel for that is Big Jet TV).
I’m TERRIFIED of airplanes, but I find these landings so fascinating that I can’t look away, and somehow I think I’m comforted that even in these wild conditions, they all make it safely (if bumpily) to the ground.
As for books, I’ve been reading A LOT. I’ll make a post about what I’ve read so far this year in the near future (though you can get a sneak peak on my Goodreads profile, which, yes, is more social media). Right now I’m reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey and will probably finish it today. It’s a short novel about people on the International Space Station circling above the earth. It’s beautiful and atmospheric. Here’s a quote I really enjoy:
“The planet is shaped by the sheer amazing force of human want, which has changed everything, the forests, the polls, the reservoirs, the glaciers, the rivers, the seas, the mountains, the coastline, the skies, the planet, contoured and landscaped by want.” (112)
I was looking at the quotes I’ve saved so far, and taken alone, they all seem bleak, though Orbital as a whole isn’t bleak at all. I guess it’s not hopeful, either, it’s kind of neutral. It reminds you that everything we do, that they do, is small in the end in the context of the whole. Which also sounds bleak but isn’t. I’ll stop now.
So to answer my own question: what now after getting off of the social media where my irl friends are? Essentially the same thing but with less mindless scrolling and more reading long-form text, which, really, makes me happier. It also makes it MUCH easier to save money because books generally don’t market to us directly, and Bluesky hasn’t added ads yet (please don’t!). It really bothers me how susceptible I am to influence for social media because I like to think I’m smarter than that, but that’ll be another post.
For now, I’m sitting on the sofa with my dogs. I’ll probably finish Orbital in the next little bit, take a shower, clean the litter boxes (my very least favorite chore but clearly a necessary one), and then I’ll probably drag myself to the gym because it’s too cold to run outside (well, so cold I don’t feel like running outside even though I have the clothes to do it). In short, I’ll still be here. With dogs.
