“Let’s keep these wheels in motion
Tell me where you wanna be”
I deleted Twitter and Facebook off my phone this morning. On the latest episode of The Shop, Naomi Osaka, Wanda Sykes, Kevin Love, and Jadakiss discuss social media and the generally negative experience it has had on their lives. There’s a uniqueness to their situations as people of renown deal with many people with unsolicited opinions and advice.
Wanda Sykes noted that we’re told as kids not to talk to strangers, and yet, we get on these apps, and that’s all we do.
Jadakiss says he has to remind his kids and his team that the shit going on on Twitter is not real life.
Naomi Osaka only installs Twitter on her phone when she needs to tweet something, and then she deletes it again.
I was catching up on my stories last night: The aforementioned The Shop, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Morning Show, and Nailed It. I sampled Foundation (keep it) and The Wonder Years (pass). And for about half the time, I was also swiping around Twitter. During Foundation, I realized that I didn’t want to be distracted ad yet there I was. I put my devices down, paid attention, and took in the experience in total. When I switched over to Nailed It, I remembered what the people had made by the show’s end and caught a lot of the small, hilarious moments that I fell in love with when it first premiered but that I have missed as the seasons have gone on and the pull of these apps gets stronger.
Again, this morning, I found myself going to Twitter when I merely intended to turn on some tunes and start my morning routine. Because of the tweaks and intentions I set early in the week about how I want my mornings to go; I could catch myself and course correct. I recognize how frequently those apps are vibe stealers.
Today’s wake-up from Headspace was about taking control of your tech experiences. The brief meditation asked me to think about the relationship I wanted to have with my tech, and there was clarity. I don’t need to be rid of these experiences altogether, but I don’t need them on my phone.
So Twitter and the always problematic (and rarely used) Facebook are gone. So are several social media apps that I never use but were sitting there waiting to pique my interest again and get me back on the sauce.
I’m grateful for a commitment to morning rituals this week. For music and chores and coffee making and meditation and journaling before being sucked into notifications and messages and the terrible or absurd or disappointing news of the day.
I’m grateful for evenings with music, journaling, and reading (I’m on pace to get three books down this week!), a set bedtime, and leaving devices outside the bedroom. I’m grateful for giving myself permission to break or tweak a rule when it serves a larger goal.
The days didn’t always go as planned, but I have found that my ability to navigate the days, be more present, be more gracious, be a better me improved with each day.
Now let’s see if I can keep it going. Removing those apps feels like a commitment to that plan.
