If social media didn't exist

Blissful existence

unholy donuts

Hi there,

I, too, was once worried who will remember me without social media posts, updates, and tags. What I find through sheer effort, or maybe just stupid luck, is that although I no longer get the tens of likes and comments under a single Instagram post, I am all the most grateful for my IRL connections and friendships that adorn me with IRL gestures of love, care, and affection.

To my friend Chantel, thank you for celebrating my 100 blog post with the most delicious donuts + our conversation dreaming together! And that other day you held me while I cried because I remembered things I wanted to forget. You truly are the best of a friend anyone could ask for. I hold you so close to my heart. I love you dearly.

Five things to share:

1. I am willing to die on this hill: Most of us would be better off if social media didn’t exist— socially, psychologically, physiologically. I say this as someone who has spent the better part of the past six years without social media and it is complete, utter, total bliss. It’s not for everyone, I understand; I’m not obtuse. But if you are someone like me, someone who spent most of their time on social media consuming utter bullshit— aka other people’s mundane lives— I say delete all that shit and tune into your own mundane existence. Let life surprise and delight you.

2. The persona illusion: Do you actually exist on social media?

   The more you exist in the world of that persona illusion, the more you get sucked in to a world where you have no rights at all, and therefore, no autonomy, and therefore no existence.

3. A short aphoristic poem I want to share with you:

   The road to wisdom?—Well, it’s
   plain and simple to express:
   Err
   and err
   and err again,
   but less
   and less
   and less.

   — Piet Hein/ THE ROAD TO WISDOM

4. Tired of checking your email? This man went a year without going online

   For an entire year, Aron Rosenberg unplugged from the internet. He stuck to letter-writing and phone calls to stay in touch with people and has written a book about his experience called 'Jacking Out: A Journal of a Year Spent Offline.' The book takes readers through Rosenberg's low-tech life of phone calls and SMS text messages on a flip phone, paying bills by cheque, writing letters by hand, and conducting his doctoral research by perusing printed pages and having conversations.

5. A question for you: If social media didn’t exist, what would you do with your life? If you knew that you wouldn’t be able to show off, impress, or even share what it was you chose to do with your life, how would it change your ambitions? This differentiates what you are doing because you want to do it from what you are doing for the sake of how it looks to other people.

   (Source: The Mountain is You)

P.s. Digital graffiti by me 😊

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

That’s all for this week!

Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.

Until next time,

Mehret