Sometimes you just need a break from social media!

If you regularly check out our website, you may have noticed that we haven’t been posting very much recently. Sometimes you just need a break! All the activity in February, March, April and May, the schedule was getting a bit tiring. Honestly, this is supposed to be FUN and CREATIVE! So, to recapture that feeling, we needed a break.  

Taking a break from social media

Have you ever thought about taking a break from your social media? We have also been cutting back on social media. To be fair we only really pay attention to Instagram and Facebook. This is largely because we link to our posts there and our friends are there. Recently, I have found the advertising on Instagram somewhat annoying and invasive, so I have been deleting some accounts and cleaning out my feed. I’ve also been taking some time to explore some new accounts that are more in line with some of my interests and which are more positive and affirming in nature.  Social media can get very aggressive and negative!

On our Instagram posts, particularly reels, we are constantly pushed to boost the post/create an ad.  This all costs money and while it might be helpful, I must admit some scepticism with the method.  The algorithm is tailored to the model. Yes, we can get increased reach and viewership with multiple reels/videos, but, I buck at being forced into a corner to do what everyone else is doing. 

Who knew that so many people out there would want to see our videos of us talking or Rocco drinking water! It’s an odd thing to me, but I guess it’s normal to the rest of the world and all part of the rich cornucopia of ‘reality’ programming within social media. 

On Facebook it is much the same thing although at least on Facebook there are more people that will click on our links (thank you!) and go and read the articles or go to our blog which is great. We do appreciate it. 

Sorting through the information – gimme a break!

It is overwhelming sometimes just how much information is out there and how much we have to sort through the information to discard what is fiction. For every truthful nugget of information there are hundreds if not thousands of mis-information, non-factual pieces of information and downright lies out there.  Thank goodness for our years and years of critical thinking, evaluative judgment, and moral reasoning to help guide us!  

Back in the days when I was still in the midst of my consulting career, I worked on a number of data aggregation projects.  Many of these projects were anticipating large data mines which would mean the need for filtering data to meet the needs of different client bases. Fundamentally, what this means is that there are a lot of companies out there (likely more now as this was 10+ years ago) that pull together data and use it for targeting marketing and communication purposes. Data (particularly personal consumption data) is a hot commodity out there right now. This data can be spliced and sliced and marketed, pitched anyway an advertiser wants. 

This means as you surf the Internet you will get targeted with information based on data points they’ve already gathered on you as well as on probability measures that they calculated based on demographics, location, country, political climate, and so on.  

Don’t think its kismet nor kharma, nor is it by chance that you happen to get a particular ad in front of you on the screen that resonates. 

Minimizing your digital footprint

What can you do to minimize your digital footprint? Well, there are entire websites, heck, companies that focus just on this so I’m not going to go into detail.  However, there are some very minor things you can do to help yourself take control of what gets out there about you and how plugged in your are:

• Clean your browser history on a regular basis
• Review and clean up your bookmarks 
• Clean up cookies regularly
• Be consistent in how you sign up to receive information from websites.  Meaning, use a dedicated email for this purpose and monitor what type of data you receive for it – is it helpful? Interesting?  Worth your email?  
• Strong password control; 2-factor authentication.  Consider a password manager like NordPass.
• Strong privacy settings
• Don’t overshare
• Keep your software up to date
• I don’t mind some of it – I like knowing when the stores I frequent are having a sale! But I kind of draw the line at absolutely everything being focussed on me and at me. 

You could go one step further and buy yourself an app that does all this. There are apps for both windows and Mac systems to take care of this for you.

Being a knowledgeable user of social media is a good idea. Go into it knowing how your data is used – and if you don’t know, ask.  Ask if it is sold to third parties, and if so, for what purpose. Just be aware of what’s out there.

Back to taking a break 

I have been finding it immeasurably helpful to my other activities (ie, painting) bracket to be less engaged with social media. It can be helpful to provide guidance, feedback and ideas.  Sometimes, however, it can cramp your creativity.  

Imagination Revisited

I remember when I was a teenager and listening to music on my Sony Walkman (yes, that long ago!).  This was pre-music videos.  I would listen to the music and IMAGINE what the music visual would be. It could be the band playing the song, it could be a visual of dancing to the song, it could be a visual of what the song was communicating.  The list was always long of what I could imagine and my mind never let me down!

Now, there is a visual for everything.  Sometimes, the visual is put forward more so that the music.  

I continue to strive for that flexible imagination as it feeds my writing and it feeds my painting.  I may be influenced by what I see on social media, but I don’t want it to take over my own vision.  

Soon, we will be back into a schedule with the website to share some of the activities we are enjoying!

In the meantime, please check out our posts on Wine, Food, Planning and Travel!