Leave it there
Some minor head-clearing
I’m thinking about deleting the social media apps (aside from Messenger) off my phone for a few months. It’s mostly because I spend way too much time on them for my own liking, and feel like I don’t have much to contribute to the conversation these days. There are a million things I could be doing other than laying in bed and scrolling; I do that a lot because I use up a lot of energy just going through the routine, but it’s not even restful because it still involves processing information (on top of the extra information I normally process when at rest). It doesn’t help that I feel an internal pressure to post something every so often to keep the algorithms happy and get my dopamine fix from the likes and comments.
I’ll probably keep the accounts open; I’m less inclined to spend a lot of time there when I access them on a desktop. Something about the phone tends to make the addictive quality worse. I blame the mobile app developers.
It’s a little weird to hear Anne Hathaway being talked about as an “older” actress because she and I are the same age. Of course, she’s a very attractive woman by any definition (there’s something about brown-eyed brunettes that just do it for me), but it’s another reminder that I’m in my forties. Friends I’ve known since high school have wrinkles around their eyes and greying hair.
I still have trouble believing that someone born in the 1990s would be turning at least 25 years old this year. Hannah Einbinder is now older than her mother (Laraine Newman) was when she was on SNL. It’s also a little sobering to think about all the people with dementia who are younger than my parents.
This song reminds me of a woman I still think about, for some reason or another. She was cute.
Hi Bronwyn, I hope temporarily deleting your apps helps you feel more at ease. I have made a yearly ritual of doing the same thing, for three months at a time, and it seems to help a lot. I struggle with putting my phone down at idle moments. Lately I have been thinking it might be good to listen to a song instead, or an audiobook, rather than reaching for my phone when I have a couple of minutes to spare. Such a hard habit to break. I am in sympathy with you for craving that dopamine hit. I get it. I used to not mind scrolling but Insta and Facebook are so full of advertising and click baity junk, didn't used to be that bad, that I feel enervated as I end up watching random reels. I rarely see my friends' posts, instead I am spoon fed a diet of junk. I do find app deletion is a nice refresh though. And I hope it is the same for you. Good for you, for taking that self care measure. We could all do with a little head clearing now and again, or, at least, I could.