Bloglovin’. Oy. Is it me, or can changing things on that site get…complicated…? I wanted the correct url to this blog on my profile, and it just wouldn’t switch from the old to the new. I could claim both urls, but not make it so it would connect to the correct one. I don’t know, it could have just been me not understanding the site, who knows. I ended up getting really annoyed, deactivating the annoying account and starting another.

Speaking of blogging, I fell down the rabbit hole of books and blogs and podcasts about social media and our addictions to it. There are so many out there, and it’s becoming clear that so many big names and businesses are dropping the not-really-lucrative, algorithms-screwing-up-your-views social media sites in favor of email lists and blogs that they own. None of us need the mind-suck of constant social media, and people are finding that their anxiety lessens, their memory gets stronger, creativity soars…all kinds of benefits.

I took all the apps except Castbox and Audible off my phone, and even in just one day I noticed how often I reached for the phone to check Twitter (my go-to). And how much of my thoughts are geared toward tweeting; it really freaked me out. Instagram I can take or leave, but Twitter, that’s my addiction. I removed the links to my social media accounts from this website, fixed the Bloglovin’ one, and I’ll be dropping IG and letting my public major-time-consuming Twitter account go. I mostly retweet things concerning Covid and my continuing inability to understand those who act as if it’s the common cold, so it really doesn’t serve me in any way, and more than anything it sends my blood pressure and anxiety through the roof and annoys my other half because I’m constantly telling him all the stuff I’m reading and sending his blood pressure through the roof, too. I can get all the news in better ways, such as Allsides.com, and I want to read more blogs (and write more posts like the random one from the other day), too.

It’s really quite scary how the internet has taken over our lives, and I’m almost finished with a book called Alone Together by Sherry Turkle, which was written 10 years ago and concerns studies the author, a social scientist and clinical psychologist, conducted about how lives have changed, especially for the then-teenagers, and how they’ve come to see the online world almost as more real that their actual lives. It’s a fascinating read, and next up is her book Reclaiming Conversation.

Another book I really liked is The Revenge of Analog by David Sax, which isn’t about going Luddite, as one would think, but more about how people are rediscovering the joys of analog – and you get to learn about how film and albums are made, too!

Anyway, it’s late, or really, really early, and I need to put all these thoughts to bed. I’ll be seeing you around here more, I hope!

Much love,

Pip 🌻

©Pip Miller – August 2021