Social Media Escape Club

The internet and numbers and bots cannot and will not translate to real tangible communities. We get carried away by the fog that is the internet and its illusions, forgetting that there exists a physical, tangible reality, a reality that we must engage with.

People in my profession say all the time that they can't do their jobs without Twitter, and it drives me so crazy because I think most of them are worse at their jobs because of Twitter. The reason is that Twitter, as do other forms of social media, gets you to lose control of what you care about. You lose that intentionality with your own... See more

So with all the caveats —we’re goofs, you shouldn’t trust companies, no one knows what the future holds, I am a literally insane person— I don’t expect this video work to “change Substack” in any deep way.

To change the stigma around needing to be constantly available and avoid phone addiction as a whole, Sheeran made the decision to get rid of his phone and only use an iPad. His primary method of communication is now email, with the singer explaining that he only checks it around once per week

Recalling the specifics now, I can see more clearly exactly what’s being lost. Scrolling displaces observation, shuts out occasions for self-generated thought, silences out-of-the-blue invitations. Checking the phone reroutes the discomfort of blankness and emptiness. It stoppers authentic—often anxious—waiting.