Fortune Favors The Bold

On Giving Up (In the Good Way!)

justsayjolie:

I didn’t have time yesterday to comment on Brian Lam’s fantastic piece about cutting out the consumption of online junk but I’ve just grabbed a 30-minute window of my life back to share a few things about some similar decisions I’ve made with regards to my internet use.

In the Fall, I made a choice to take a break from tumblr, both as a personal blogging platform and as a feed, for two or so months; in order to keep myself on the straight and narrow I changed my password to gobbledygook. I put a few tumblrs into my Google Reader (okay fine, just Choire’s) and told a few friends to email me links if they did things I should know about (okay fine, just Tyler). At the same time, I rejiggered who I was following on Twitter to remove a lot of the “noise” accounts. I use Twitter in a very controlled way, mostly to feed and promote the work I do for I Can Haz LLC (I read Good Housekeeping so you don’t have to etc.) and to get the majority of my news (I ain’t got no TV). I follow very few people I know IRL and even fewer throwaway accounts. I cannot, however, quit Dina Manzo or her cat. Sorry. <3 u Dina-ie and Grandma Wrinkle-ie!

Then at the beginning of this year, having found myself suffering from a serious case of burnout that was beginning to manifest itself in health problems, I decided to put in place a social media curfew. Basically I recognized that I needed to give myself more time to be turned off, to relax. So after 9p, I do not use Gmail, Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook. Nothing that is interactive in any way. Sometimes I make exceptions to the email rule to accomodate the 14-hour time difference between me in New York and Nicholas in Sydney, because nurturing that friendship is very, very important to me and my well-being. I don’t want to go for a full “no internet” or “no computer” rule because I like to fall asleep watching absolutely crappy programs on Netflix or iTunes. (I am CERTAINLY not one of those non-TV-owning people who finds any sense of superiority in my choice. Mostly I’m just cheap and don’t want to pay for cable.) I also like to unwind before bed by reading the wikipedia. Some people have novels, I have the wikipedia. Sue me.

Oh God and? I also unfollowed Betabeat on Twitter which seriously was, like, the most sanity-saving thing I’ve ever done for myself.

The result of all of this has been that the content I’m producing for the various I Can Haz LLC (sorry, I cannot get enough of that name you guys) entities I contribute to has improved and expanded. And it will continue to do so, which is great! Because I absolutely love writing for Choire and Edith and That Other One and if putting myself on a tumblr diet means that I can do more and better stuff with them? It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?

I’ve also been cooking a lot more, getting out to wander around this fantastic city, seeing friends, making travel plans, trying to be a person who can go on dates (dates are very hard for me because I am a freak), shopping so I can look cute on the dates that I have such a hard time going on because I am a freak, and so on.

I also am healthier, because I’m more rested - body-wise and head-wise. I care much less about “keeping up” with what’s happening at any given moment on the internet and about What People Are Upset About Today. I’m much less voyeuristic. I kind of miss the particular joy derived from working myself into a rage frenzy over the absurdity of “Editor of Gifzette” being a title that someone took seriously enough to print in a year-end round-up but ultimately it’s best for me to not seek out things that are meaninglessly angry-making.

Related: please stop reblogging that dreadful Hello Brit creature. Please. Be a pal and spare me that.

Anyway, mostly this is to say that, at a time when I find myself at the end of a fast of another sort altogether, I would encourage anyone to take a hard look at the patterns and habits they’ve created for themselves, online or off, and ask if those ways of doing things are still working for them. Just like in business, processes that you put in place five years ago and are still using because “it’s what’s always been done!” deserve reexamination from time to time.

Now I just need a sweet-ass van.