Unplugged

June 29th, 2021

Social media, love it or hate it, it’s here to stay.  My friend asked me the other day, “Does anyone ever put up the bad stuff that’s happening in their lives?  It’s all just fluff.”  I responded  with a laugh, “Yes, all of the time.  Some people use social media to broadcast the domestic climate of their living situation and use it like a journal.”  The thing about social media is, it’s monotonous.  If you go over to this person’s page, you know you’ll see nothing but cats.  If you go over to that person’s page, you know you’ll see nothing but dogs, if you go over to another’s page, it’s all politics and over on so and so’s page, it’s nothing but a daily journal of what is going on with them on a regular basis.  Social media has become the land of never ending memes, where you see the same meme’s repeatedly over and over.  Can you tell I am over it?  I want my flip phone back, I want Myspace where my friends could hear a song play when they came onto my page and I just want the fuck away from social media.  Enough all ready, but it’s not that easy when your business thrives due to social media.  If it wasn’t for my biz, I’d have cut the cord a long time ago.

This past weekend was a catalyst for change.  I went to the shore to stay with a college friend, a fellow WDNR Deejay who I haven’t seen in two years and while I was with her I had three people messaging me on FB and a few people texting me for reasons I will never understand.  Even with photos showing that I am at the beach, some people wanted to vent to me about heavy issues when people could see I was busy having a good time.  I turned my phone off and thought, I’ve had enough.  Facebook and social media doesn’t make me happy, it’s an energy suck and I want away from it.  It doesn’t recharge me, it drains me.  There are times I am afraid to post because I don’t want people reaching out to me.   Not on my business page, but on my regular FB page.  It shouldn’t be like this, but it has been a catalyst for me to make some changes.  I looked up cutting the cord with social media and realized, what will I miss?  I am going to keep my business page up, but remove the FB and messenger apps from my phone so that way no one can reach me at any time of day, or night.  Only my business page app is up and instagram.       

I decided I am going off of social media for 30 days and doing a social media cleanse but will be posting on my jewelry pages.  After that, I’ll revisit what I want to do.  My friends know where to find me and so do my clients.  I was happier without social media.  I think I still have a flip phone tucked away in a drawer.  I want to be fully present, with no interruptions.  Email me or better yet, write me a letter.  Do you remember the last time you received a hand written letter?  I would love to get one.  I can honestly say, in a time when we are so connected, there is so much disconnect and people don’t really hear each other or put in as much work anymore.  It’s not about true intimacy anymore.  Hanging with someone, talking to someone, it’s all a quick message, an easy text and people staring at their phones while you are with them.  I want to go back to the 70’s, the 80’s, the early 90’s and live the way we did then;  life was simple, you were fully present and due to the effort put forth, you felt cared for.  There were no cell phones, no social media pages, it was just you and whomever you were with, or weren’t with and your Doc Marten’s.   Life was about calling someone, hearing a voice, making a plan to get together (or not) and driving to see them with directions fully written out to read while driving.  Yup.  Still alive.

To truly connecting without static and noise and living in high fidelity.  Let it begin.  I’m unplugging, disconnecting to connect so I’ll talk to you later.  If you have an emergency, dial 911.  Over and out, that’s the 411.  Speaking of John Cusack movies, no one would ever be outside of your house with a boombox blaring today would they?  Emailing a song to someone just isn’t the same.  Maybe I’m a romantic but a song from a boombox, a letter sent, all of these ways of connecting are missed and missing.