• Russian Linesman

    One very good musical journey to go on is the series of EPs by Russian Linesman. Starting here with Monomyth I, then II, III, IV, V and VI. Of all the tracks, I especially like ‘Rescue from without’ on Monomyth V (The Return)

    Image below is a universal music link that should take you to the streaming service of your choice.

    Many Thanks to Fenner Pearson’s wonderful music podcast Electronic Ears for introducing me to them.

  • 18165

    This is the number of hours I have estimated to have wasted on social media. I actually believe this to be a conservative number.

    Around 2007 I started using Facebook heavily. I was already using the social media built into Flickr (which was very good, and probably a huge missed opportunity), so I have calculated from that year. Three hours a day from then is 18165 Hours.

    The time wasted on social media is not just when you are actively using it. It becomes part of your thoughts. You start to think about how what you are currently doing can be reported to socials. Photos, experiences and thoughts all start to be consumed by the social crack pipe in the background.

    The 10,000 hour rule is based on becoming the best of the best in a field. The top 1%. This usually requires some talent to start with, but it is generally said to be this number.

    With that, I have almost hit that number twice in complete and utter waste.

    I can find old blog posts from almost all the way back to 2007 saying how much of a problem socials are.

    This is yet another post where I plead with myself to change.

  • Reversal

    I hope today is the first day of the road back to some kind of health.

  • Social Media

    I have written many posts about social media over the years. I’ve been able to find breadcrumbs of my thoughts going back to around 2009 about it.

    Deleting Facebook that is.

    It really is a poison to me. I would have easily burnt through actually years worth of hours on social media. And it isn’t just the time you are endlessly scrolling, it is the fact it takes over everything you do.

    • You look at something and think “I’ll take a photo of that and post it – how cool”.
    • You do things you normally wouldn’t do just so you can post it.
    • You get a snarky comment – it consumes you.
    • And in later years – politics and conspiracy theories.

    In the early days of Facebook, it started to affect me negatively as I was not really happy with my life and what I had done with it. The evils of comparison had set it, and it was not until many years afterward I realised that just about everyone is falsely portraying their lives on the great blue crack pipe.

    In later years I added Instagram and Twitter. Before I knew it, I was jumping aimlessly between them all.

    The Covid and Trump years took their toll as well. I lost many friends due to what they would post on social media. Everyone now seems insane on some level.

    I am taking the rest of this year off social media. I hope it is more permanent actually. My last stretch was 90 days and it felt good.