I took the weekend off from social media.
(And from checking the blog.)
That used to be my regular pattern, as I’d ditch email/ social media each evening at 5pm, and every weekend.
Before the pandemic.
It was another era, as we all know, but given how quickly life got back to its patterns, (when the masks came off,) I’m not sure how many of us even consider the difference anymore?
For a long while, it was normal to refer to the before times. As if everyone on Earth were playing by an accepted set of rules: there was a way of life, pre-Covid, and then what came next.
Given that it’s still a question in the media, TODAY, whether the entire planetary catastrophe originated in a Chinese bio-lab, I think it’s fair to say we’re not behind it yet. We’re still in it.
Which means it’s not yet possible to know what the after-times will be.
I know one thing though: I’m not going back to using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on the weekends anymore.
Lately, I’ve been feeling distracted.
And I couldn’t figure out why.
Last Monday, I wrote a post here about how I felt lonely sometimes. Lonely in a way I didn’t enjoy. That felt wrong, and unsustainable.
What could I do?
At some point, late last week, the knowledge settled in my stomach. But then it jumped, like a kicking baby, and gave me a message I couldn’t miss.
On Friday, at 9:30pm, I saw a tweet, and even though it had nothing to do with me directly, I’m enough a member of the media that I had personal connections to the missive. It gave me a stress trigger, right then and there.
Ooof.
So I asked myself, why am I checking Twitter at 9:30 on a Friday night?
I never used to do that.
Why now?
And the answer was, I’d convinced myself the weak-tie bonds, the quick jolt of energy we get from a like, or a reply, had come to stand in for actual human relations.
Should I say it aloud?
When someone likes your IG post, or you trade comments with a stranger, or even someone you know, it’s simply not the equivalent of going for a walk with a mate.
Or having dinner with family.
I took that unfortunate, night-tweet-trigger as a sign, and decided, for certain, I’d cut out social media this weekend, to see how it felt.
So what happened?
Jessie and I went to town on Saturday, to see an art exhibit, and discover the Taos Winter Market. We walked around. Met some new people. She got a Frito pie, for $7, which was all the cash I had on me.
Then yesterday, we went in again for errands.
We talked to each other.
It was lovely. (Even errands!)
This morning, I picked up one of the all-time great books, “The Hero with a Thousands Faces,” by Joseph Campbell, and found some inspiration. Reading genius on paper is so pleasurable! And it gave me the juice to write this positive post.
Distraction sucks.
Scrolling on social media, with all the flashing light, and video movement, is inherently distracting. It leaves us a husk, instead of the tamale filling.
So I stopped scrolling.
Instead, I googled the word Dignity, as it came up in an article I read about Jonathan Majors, in the Guardian, and then again in some show I was watching with Helen Mirren.
Apparently, dignity is different from respect, as the latter has to be earned, and the former is bestowed at birth.
Who knew there was even a difference?
I do.
I know now.
Because I finally accepted that social media is not a positive influence, (in the main,) and we need to be very careful when we play with fire.
(Shout out to Lily Allen!)
Sunshine and Olly 
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