Earlier in the year, I waited eight weeks for the local Ikea to finally get a shipment of Billy bookcases.
The particle board smell was so strong that we started with two book cases and let the rest air out in the garage. This start was enough to handle a third of my books.
A few weeks later, we raised the final three and finally emptied our boxes of books after eleven years!
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Social media is dangerous. Our puny individual ape brains were not evolved to survive hordes of corporate psychologists. However, there is great value buried in those sites.
After being on on Instagram for #inktober for two weeks, I am all the more certain that the best way handle a social media website is to decide upon a real-world analogy (to limit your use) and never let it slip out of its prison.
Here are my personal metaphors for various social media sites.
Twitter—Newspaper opinion pages (lurk only—no comments, no hearts)
Facebook—Telephone gossip among old friends
Linkedin—Awkward business networking event
Instagram—Mall of private galleries (I've had a rotation of interests, but my current selections are calligraphy, illustration, and airports).
Reddit—Collection of old school special interest web-forums (ignore the all-in-one feed on the main page).
Substack—The collected newsletters make an Arts and Poetry Magazine, with Notes as its attached web-forum (I avoid hot button topics like politics).
Youtube—A giant Fry's Electronics wall of TV’s. Even though I only lurk the site, this is by far the hardest place to keep in check. I might institute a personal rule to write a sentence about each video I watch (h/t James Hart).
Tiktok—Just Say No.
In these battles against the algorithm, you will be constantly presented with intriguing morsels creeping outside of your proscribed boundaries. Don't take the bait. You must constantly ignore, mute, and cull your feeds. Big Social is a fine servant but a cruel master.
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Thank goodness I only indulge in Facebook to, as you say, gossip with old friends, and follow a few nomads on YouTube for my travel urge. Substack provides a platform my my writings and an intellectual splurge every day with really interesting and varied "friends." A community of thinkers I can't find in my actual neighborhood. All the others? Never been there.
Totally agree on the social media metaphors. I was an early adopter on Twitter, but dropped it and deleted my account two years ago as my professional network there disintegrated. They all moved to other platforms, and I tried a few and was not satisfied. I was hoping they would eventually find their way to Substack, but that hasn't happened. They were significant contacts when I was research my two books and now we are all scattered.
I refuse to give up Facebook for the reason you give; it's where I hang out with friends, family and former students.