9/3/26
Sometimes, I hear people repping some of the decentralized or federated options like Bluesky and Mastadon. But both of those networks seemed to elicit the exact same negative feelings in me that the old places I used to roam do.
I do still miss the idea of connecting more easily with people who share my interests around the world. And I miss the idea that I’m “building an audience” for my game releases. But, at this point I still feel like I’ve made the right trade for my own health.
9/2/26
I am glad to no longer be on social media still.
I’ve encountered a few situations where people will reference some trend from Instagram or TikTok and I will have no idea what they’re talking about. I was very much on the inside for a lot of this sort of trend in my earlier Twitter era. It’s pretty fascinating to be on the outside looking into that sort of thing now.
Not having social media accounts, I’ve become sort of annoyed any time someone shares a link from any of them. They’re so much more annoying to just view the video or whatever than any other sort of link people share with me. For one, its always a video these days, so I have to stop what I’m doing to fully focus on the thing to understand anything about it. I would really rather be linked text. Secondly, you cannot play any of these videos in your chat app. You have to follow a link. That link will try to coerce you into signing up or signing in. It will be unclear if you even can view the video without doing so. Then, when you finally dismiss all the pop ups, you’ll see some pointless 15 second video clip that feels hardly worth the effort. I mostly don’t follow these links when I’m sent them these days… Sorry!
I have definitely replaced the compulsions that used to come from scrolling social media with checking other things. I check my RSS reader feed way more frequently than it could possible have updates. I refresh my email app hoping for a new piece of spam. I am frequently checking for the “new message” indicator on my Discord servers. I am still going to LinkedIn for unknown reasons.
On top of all this, I am watching Twitch and YouTube as much as ever. This is all almost certainly just as much a “waste” of my time as my consumption of social media ever was.
I do feel like the places I engage now are soooooo much less designed to cause me rage, frustration, and anger. I very much appreciate that the things I’ve left in my life are places I’ve opted into following creators (except for LinkedIn, what is wrong with me?) who make content I find interesting.
I think my infinite scrolling habits and watching of lots of pointless game live streams are maybe more symptomatic of other feelings that problems in their own right. Put another way – when I removed my previous “addictions” I just substituted new ones. I’m still happier with my changes, so I think it was worth doing.
12/31/25
I’ve been through a few phases of cutting social media out of my life now. I’m pretty happy with how it has gone. I have no plans to return.
I feel like I’ve lost a little bit of the community I used to get from those spaces. I do not think I was getting it from them any longer anyway though.
I am getting community instead now from local in person groups and smaller Discord communities. I’m interested in Friendcatcherss as well for the outreach portion of finding new cool people.
I have noticed that “scrolling” stays constant. I always find something new to replace the old addiction with. I think, perhaps, this “addiction” is more of a manifestation of exhaustion, low energy, and burn out. I often don’t feel like I have the energy to do something meaningful after work (or on the weekend). Instead, I “scroll” or watch Twitch.
Right now, I think the best solutions for me are:
- Continue trying to remove software from my life that is actively trying to rope me in.
- Infinite scrolling
- Notifications that cannot be removed
- Continue removing software from my life that do not feel enriching
- Same old arguments keep cropping up in a community?
- Community is too large and doesn’t feel comfy any longer?
- Activity feels empty
I don’t really feel bad about playing Connections when I’m waiting in a line. I don’t feel bad typing in my notes. I don’t feel bad reading a book or magazine. I don’t feel bad playing a game I like.
I think I need to continue trying to be conscious of this and regularly re-evaluating my feelings.
10/9/25
I re-enabled my Disable a website with TamperMonkey script. I’ve been pretty good about not checking Twitter and my other old social media crutches.
I have really fallen into compulsively checking LinkedIn constantly though. Now that I cannot pretend I’m just checking it to look for work any more, I’m going to re-enable the blocker.
I’m tired of using this website. It makes me feel like shit. It makes me incredibly anxious about AI issues and losing my job. It is unquestionably a net detriment to my happiness. The only scraps of value are seeing what some of my peers and former coworkers are up to and occasionally seeing some useful work or tech tip or idea.
Do I need to block Twitch and YouTube as well?
8/20/25
This has definitely been a quality of life improvement. I have read a couple books about this topic recently:
- Ten reasons to delete your social media account right now (I think this inspired the initial post of this)
- Stolen Focus
I’ve noticed that my I think I have a digital content addiction problem is very much true.
My current recognized addictions right now:
- I had been watching a whole lot of Twitch or Youtube while “working” on my second monitor. I think this was REALLY bad for me.
- Now, I am more honestly watching YouTube or Twitch on one screen while I don’t do anything else at all.
- I scroll LinkedIn on my phone ALL the time now.
- I compulsively check my email and Discord on my phone.
- I check Discord and Slack constantly on my laptop.
- I listen to podcasts pretty constantly - I’m not THAT bothered by this one
3/10/24
This still feels great.
I have noticed I’ve substituted some things in for social media checking.
- I check Board Game Geek constantly even knowing there’s not much there that is interesting
- This is my primary mobile content filler
- I watched a lot of Twitch streams still
- I check a lot of Discord messages
- I have noticed that I check my LinkedIn feed a decent bit now - WAY less than I used to on Twitter, but still more than zero.
1/6/24
I think I have a digital content addiction problem
6/19/23
- Having socials blocked has been an interesting
- i have kept hitting the blocked screen a lot. i check it SO compulsively. Now i keep going to the new tab screen and catch myself about to open up twitter and then realizing what i’m doing and just sort of sitting there.
- There’s really nothing to do on my phone any more. I check discord and sometimes there’s stuff there. Sometimes i have an email. But other than that it’s pretty much nothing. This is a weird feeling!
- I really notice it when i’m away from the house and waiting for something. (or in the bathroom) and reach for my phone to entertain me. But it really doesn’t entertain! this certainly feels weird right now, but maybe it is good in the long run and will encourage me to find new ways to entertain on the go? talking to people? playing games with people?