A feed by any other name…
…is just as much a waste of time.
I quit Facebook a few years ago because I found the endless search for engagement depressing (and also because of their privacy violations, but that’s a different discussion). I do miss occasional social interactions with friends, and I’ve lost contact with people too which is a shame. But I haven’t really missed it. Nor the sense I was being stripped naked because when it’s free, you’re the product.
I thought setting up an RSS reader would be a way to focus my attention on specific sources of information and for a while it worked, but I now suspect it was the novelty that kept me interested. I recently added podcasts and Youtube videos to create a centralized place for finding “stuff” of interest, intending to retire some applications. But when I found myself browsing the feeds at 3am last night, trying to find something, anything of interest, I knew something was wrong.
Today I realized what it was: I’d created Facebook by proxy, another pit of despair. The deeper I got, the less engaged I felt. Scrolling past article after article, lots of duplicates, not many of actual interest finally got to me.
So I shut the account down today. And if I find myself reaching for my phone to read some tat and rubbish, I’ve decided I’ll just get on the rowing machine instead. If what I’m doing isn’t holding my attention, I need to be doing something useful.
That’s the theory, anyway.
In other news, the book edits are getting better, so that’s something positive!
