Shortly after the new year, I made the decision to take a break from social media. I deleted the apps off my phone, logged out of my accounts on my laptop, and just stopped visiting all of them. No Mastodon, no Bluesky and no Pixelfed (I actually deleted that account). There are days I consider opening them up, but for the moment, I just don’t think I’m going to.

I do miss the dev community on both Mastodon and Bluesky. It was fun to read about the creative stuff people were working on and sharing. But I’ve also been thinking about politics and the state of the world. It’s not a leap to say that my mental state is very concerned about the state of things and social media isn’t always the best for my mental health. I’d prefer to avoid doom-scrolling. I’ve still want to keep up with current events as it’s important, but I’m trying to do it at a slower and more deliberate pace.

I’m limiting my news intake to a quick look at the stories most mornings, and then focus on sources like my subscriptions to The Economist and the Philadelphia Inquirer. More of the in-depth articles I read are a little later so hopefully there’s a little more known about what happened or what is happening. It’s not perfect and my thoughts and methods are sort of evolving as I go.

So I think I’m going to stick to the “slow” internet for the time being. Reading blogs, going through the various RSS feeds I subscribe to. If you have a personal site and RSS feed, or any thoughts to share, by all means reach out via email.