Social Media + Reading

02024-01-22 | Uncategorized | 3 comments

After I quit Twitter + deleted my account I signed up with Mastodon + with Bluesky. It’s not that I don’t find interesting stuff on either of those services because I do, but I am simply less willing to spend time there. I find myself wanting to cinch down the opening of the information fire hose, to cut it down to a trickle. That trickle is probably still more than what any of us experienced in the 90’s. I arrived at the realization that it doesn’t matter how interesting I find something, it can still be too much. I need to cut out the good info together with the bad info because it is too much. That was a good insight to arrive at. 

I have come to the conclusion that a book is a good way for me to pick up information… Sure, I could pick up a lot MORE information in mixed bag of terse social media posts but a book uses language in a way that is much more appealing to me. It’s the language, hopefully even a poetic use of language, plus the manageable drip of information. 

Current reading:
Breaking Bread with the Dead by Alan Jacob. Highly recommended. 

One of the reasons we are not creative is because we are so reactive.
—Stephen Batchelor

3 Comments

  1. Steve

    >I arrived at the realization that it doesn’t matter how interesting I find something, it can still be too much.

    This is actually quite good insight, and … to be honest I hadn’t thought of it that way before.

    I guess this brings up the question:

    “what ought to be the guiding principle(s) for spending time online, if the goal is to slow the information fire hose down to a trickle?”

    Reply
    • ottmar

      In my case it has meant curating a good list of RSS feeds. That’s the only thing I read on a daily basis. The only social media I still have on my phone is Mastodon + Bluesky. I don’t look at either more often than once a week. I wonder whether it’s a good trick to simply not access stuff on the phone. A computer is used differently, isn’t it. We don’t open a laptop every time we wait in line or wait for an elevator. We only do that with a phone.

      Reply
  2. Steve

    > I wonder whether it’s a good trick to simply not access stuff on the phone. A computer is used differently, isn’t it. We don’t open a laptop every time we wait in line or wait for an elevator. We only do that with a phone.

    I think this is it. Right here.

    Reply

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