Going Dark…
I was hesitant initially, but— I was invited. I recieved an invitation from a woman whom I respected and admired, along with several other real-life friends, to sign up for what seemed like a classier, more mature step up from MySpace.
How was I to know that 17 years later, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok would become a vapid cesspool of bots, bad ideas, and keyboard warriors? These platforms to inspiring an entire population of people to essentially check out from reality, and to hand over their most personal details, attention spans and credit card numbers, on a silver platter for the chance to be followed, validated, and to even “go viral”. Long gone are the innocent days of the Double Rainbow guy.
It’s not all bad out there. I do see a lot of wonderful, wholesome, and inspiring posts from people wiser and more creative than I— on family life, yoga, parenting, meditation, cooking, homesteading, skincare, wellness... But I have also come to realize that the most “amazing” posts that I see tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Watching years of someone’s life, hard work, most precious moments, or incredible achievements literally cut, slashed, and reduced down to a 15 second clip, only then to be buried by an avalanche of mediocrity. I just cannot abide this kind of tragedy.
And now, with the advent, introduction, and seemingly full-scale overnight adoption of AI, I have made the decision to bow out of this race. I will not be willingly participating in the brain atrophy that this technology is designed for. I’m tired of the attention sucking, the time wasting, and the data harvesting. I’m not up for the break-neck pace, the deep fakes, the bots, or the subsequent nervous system dysregulation. I no longer wish to spend my evenings doom scrolling through the never ending, divisive amplification of pure insanity. Let me be free from the phony reviews, the appeals to sympathy, and the calls for dog-piling. In the end, I simply do not have the time nor content required to participate with an ever less-attentive band of “followers”.
I feel that engaging with my audience through good old fashioned email is the new move. I hope that by doing this, I will be able to connect with people who truly value my content. And by not engaging in the frivolous noise of social media, I will have more bandwidth to create something of actual value, for both you and myself.
So, I have made the decision to “go dark”, to go within. I will seek the wisdom inside. I will address the underlying discomfort that has kept me on the scroll, lookin’ for that fix, for those dopamine hits. This will be my new form of #resistance. Now let’s see if I actually have the nerve to cut the cord, and let the last 15 years of cyber-documentation of my life fall into the abyss. Stay tuned! And if this form of communication resonates with you, please do sign up for my newsletter.
Love IRL,
Cheri
