I miss the golden days of Twitter when I discovered new music, scrolled through lyrical babble, and made genuine friends. But no matter how hard I try to maintain a feed dedicated to these things, the hysteria and hate somehow still bleed through the floorboards. I don’t want to feed that machine anymore.
Is it possible to engage with social media without losing your soul? To sidestep its outrage mechanics and degrading scoreboards? With their idiot logic of hearts and retweets, these channels are fundamentally designed to advertise oneself—so perhaps using them sensibly requires stripping away the self. To quit any attempt at appearing bright and clever and instead find new ways of listening and looking that encourage imagination rather than opinion. To erase the “I” and stand outside of time, writing like a ghost.
Such were my thoughts as I wondered if I might find a way to use these spaces differently. Then I realized I should follow this advice in all areas of my life.
