Seeking the social in media
Written by Ben Tallon
I’ll turn 42 next year. A full life might be 82. Or 70. Or 75. I don’t bloody know. My point is, that if I get a full outing, I can see this as half-time. Sit down in the dressing room, take the bollocking, feed on the praise for the good stuff. Then it’s back out to kick on. When I signed up for Twitter in 2009 I was 28. In the mindset of a person who feels life is all ahead, perhaps there’s a risk of spending too much valuable time scrolling and interrupting the good stuff. I certainly did that a little bit. Thankfully I never saw any value in sharing my personal life on the internet. That’s all mine. But I crashed a few flow states by ‘just checking’ how the artwork or comment I’d shared was being received.
Now at nearly 42, that clock ticks louder. This isn’t morbid, it’s incredibly positive. I talk to my deathbed self daily to make sure I’m seeking maximum enrichment in my life and it’s one of the first tasks I set my coaching clients. That way when the systems designed to drain my attention by engaging my brain reach out with their resource-intensive tendrils, I chop the fuckers off and get back to drawing, reading, writing, and after work, playing with the kids or staring at a wall so my unconscious can do its invaluable job. Anything but mindless screen gazing.
I want to remember things as I traverse the world around me. Notice changes. Glean ideas nobody else, not even AI can have. Feel things. Know things, trust I’m here with a purpose. ‘Data subject’ is how some big tech companies actually refer to humans these days. That should tell you what they care about. Too many times I’ve walked or travelled somewhere and not even remembered the journey. So, fuck that. I’m smelling the trees and touching the earth each morning before my eyes enter any screen.
It’s time to reconsider my relationship with social media. I’m not leaving, but I want it to nourish, bring about meaningful conversations with real people, and I’d like to stay in control of it. That way, the 2nd half of my life stands a chance of matching what – all considered, thanks to creativity and good people – has been a pretty beautiful first-half runout.