Waste of Time

How do you use social media?

I justify keeping Facebook active because I am able to stay in contact with old friends. Mostly, it wastes time. If there ever was a place where I needed to read “positive thinking” memes, I know where to look. Where else can I see family photos of my cousin’s children, learn the names of current movies and television series, and see anniversaries of otherwise forgettable cultural events? About 6 or 7 years ago, I commented on a political post and was “roasted” as friends of a friend commented or mocked me. It’s a relatively common occurrence, so I avoid making the same mistake.

Ten years ago, I had a relatively large following on twitter. I was strung out, seeking validation, perhaps. More accurately, I was addicted to the pings of endorphins I received upon discovering my tweet was retweeted (x) times. It became a game of diminishing returns, however. As much as I believed I was “connecting” with “my kind of people” online, which was true to some extent, but ultimately, twitter became a way to waste time. Not that wasting time can be unenjoyable: in fact, I enjoyed wasting time for a while.

I would much more prefer to have a clear mind and a focused attention span than to be strung out on social media and the opinions of other people, however.

Ideally, I use social media to express myself or to promote music, fine art, or photography, but the distraction is sometimes too much to handle.