I joined Facebook in October 2007, and Twitter in May 2008. Social media has been a massive part of my life for more than a decade. It was originally a way to find and connect with like-minded people, and a natural extension of my blog. I made good friends, some of whom I went on to meet in the flesh.
The social media world has changed since then. It’s harder and harder to fight the algorithms that control what you see, and what you don’t. There’s no way of knowing what’s being hidden from you, or whether what’s popular is being promoted by nefarious Russians for their own opaque purposes. Social media is more popular, and busier, and has been adopted by businesses, so there’s a lot more noise and advertising, and a lot less chit chat. And I don’t need to say that some pretty unsavoury people have taken to social media simply to torment and abuse others.
In the face of all this noise, it’s almost impossible to feel you’re making a connection. I have felt, for a while, that my posts are simply me shouting into the void. And the constant stream of “We have to do something!” posts – our response to feeling like we live in a broken world – make me anxious, not motivated.
I have been following lots of accounts that post interesting snippets. Each one sent me off to look things up or find out more, and gave me ideas of things I wanted to do. But I didn’t do any of them. I didn’t use the information I’d dug up. The interesting snippets piled up, and I started to file them away to use later. Fortunately they are digital, not paper, or I would have been buried by an avalanche of paper by now. My poor brain bounces from one shiny new thing to the next, and can’t focus on one topic long enough to make anything of it.
And so I decided to take a month off social media. I didn’t have rules, or go cold turkey, but I did mute 90% of the people I follow on Twitter for a month, and unfollow most companies/organisations on Facebook. So when I opened up the apps to see what had been happening… I got very little. Doing it this way meant I didn’t have to fight the habit, but removed the addictive ‘reward’ that social media gives us every time we check it.
It has been nearly a month, and I don’t miss it. So I’m not going back to social media. I’m not deleting my accounts, I’m not storming off in a huff, and I’m not saying “Never again”; it simply has nothing to offer me at the moment. I want connection and conversation, I’m just not sure where to find it.
I have no idea what this might mean for the blog, in terms of what I write finding an audience. Maybe it will be the start of a new thing – The Unconventional Gardener Unplugged. We shall have to wait and see.
Interesting post Emma and I wish you well. I’ve found I’ve got more out of belonging to a few groups, where I’m continuing conversations with people I know, especially those I can’t see because we’re so far apart. If it wasn’t for that I think I might be doing the same as you. I’ve not been able to work this year, so I haven’t felt the need for keeping up with everything else that social media has to offer, and I haven’t missed that side of things at all.
I have been reading things that suggest that people are moving towards more private conversations – groups and apps like WhatsApp rather than using FB and Twitter for that. I am a member of a few FB groups I will keep up with, periodically!
I get where you’re coming from and wish you the best. I for one am glad I found you via social media and have enjoyed your books and blog.
Thanks Debbie 🙂
I love you! I feel absolutely identically. I left FB nearly a year ago and haven’t missed it a whit. Am on instagram but very partially. No rancour, just as you say seeking something these spaces no longer offer. But it does make me wonder how my poor little under-recognised and under-fed blog will function in their absence …
I love your blog! I’d love to do something similar, but with my vastly different palette of plants 🙂 We all managed before social media, so hopefully we still can, and will find different strategies that work for us.
Do share the ones you try or run across. Yes we did all get about just fine before social media & there’s got to be hope in that!
I understand where you’re coming from and also love the aspect of finding people with the same ideas and goals as well as finding new ideas but too am usually disappointed. I too have become disenchanted with all the other noise. I rarely read twitter anymore and I stay in contact with those on Facebook who are family or close friends. I just don’t have the energy, physically or emotionally to read them every day and I’ve stopped posting as much because most of my life is dealing with my health issues and I feel like I’m just repeating myself.
I still have my blog but haven’t posted in at least 2 years but am not ready to let my posts go quite yet, it feels like losing part of myself, which is a bit silly, the more I think about it.
I’m going to miss your posts because I enjoy your writing. But I know we will stay in contact because you are more than my friend, you are like a sister! Love you!!!
I’m still going to blog, so I’m not going to disappear completely. And I don’t think it’s silly at all to want to keep your blog posts – we put so much work into them, and there’s no reason to let them go! Love you 🙂
I totally get where you are coming from. I’m feeling the same about Twitter, which is why I’ve moved over to Mastodon. It’s a much nicer space, and in the two months I’ve been on there I’ve have great conversations on permaculture, gardening, upcycling etc, than I’ve had on Twitter in the last year.
Do you have a follow by email for your blog? I’d like to sign up and keep up to date, but not found it yet. I’d like to keep up with your blogposts – you are one of the most interesting garden/plant bloggers out there!
Yes, you can follow the blog via email, although it’s not as obvious as it could be. If you go to the RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/emmacooper-blog) there’s an option to ‘Get The Unconventional Gardener delivered by email’ in the top right hand corner.