Can I resist the scroll?

"The main thing that my digital minimalism journey has taught me is that I am not a slave to the machine that is social media."

At the beginning of December 2023 I posted my last short-form content on Instagram and TikTok, logged out and asked my husband to change the password on my App Store. 

Going cold turkey was an experiment in digital minimalism. I intended to take six months off both creating and consuming short-form content, but I loved it so much I ended up taking 10 months. 

I had been online non-stop for the preceding two years and had built an audience in the process. Stumbling across Cal Newport’s work on digital minimalism was the catalyst for deciding to shut it all out. I couldn’t ignore how the noise, rage-bating, and overstimulation were wearing me down. What had started as a fun online endeavour was turning into another life-sucking burnout trap. 

I have written many articles about my experiences with digital minimalism and the attention economy, which you can read here, and was recently invited to contribute to a podcast episode “Sick of scrolling? Digital minimalism could help” on All In The Mind. It’s a fantastically produced episode spotlighting informative guests so I invite you to check it out if you’re interested in this topic. 

I can’t help but note the irony of the All In The Mind podcast episode coming out on the day I started posting on short-form social media again. Yes, I’m back in the ring - and, honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be staying. Within two weeks of being back my screen time and impulse online purchases have shot up again. 

But now I’ve seen life without social media, I want to experiment with whether or not I can manage having one foot in and one foot out. As was the case when I decided to go cold turkey with short-form social media, the only way I feel comfortable coming back is with clear terms of usage - so I’m further altering my philosophy of technology use. 

The ‘philosophy of technology use’ is Cal Newport’s idea that you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimised activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else. 

So, with this in mind, what is my why and how for switching up my own philosophy of technology use?

In terms of the why - well, I’m curious. I want to know if, now I’ve seen what life is like without social media, I can go back and still hold on to the lessons I’ve learned about being offline. Namely, that I can fulfil my values both in work and personal life with a screen time of about three to four hours per day, life tastes better when I don’t go on screens first thing in the morning, and my bank balance and mental health thank me when I don’t scroll as a consumer or read comments. 

I am not returning to short-form social media as a consumer. I am returning to social media as a content creator because I genuinely miss creating short-form content and sharing it with you. Although at one stage in my life consuming short-form content served a life-changing purpose for me, I no longer have a need for it to fulfil. I am happy with the forms of entertainment and insight I have in my life outside of social media. I will engage with other social media accounts when I upload my own content, but that’s it.

[Note to self: This is the term of usage I have least faith in myself being able to fulfil - not because I don’t want to, but because these social media apps know exactly how to capture my attention without me realising. This has already been evidenced by my first two weeks back online!]

Then there is the question of how. How do I create and share content on social media whilst also upholding the values I’ve identified are important to me during my digital minimalism journey? 

Well, the values that are important to me are: 

• not living life online more than I am offline. This means limiting time spent physically uploading content and interacting with my audience online to a set time period during the working day. 

• not posting because I feel I have to. This sounds obvious, but the pressure to ‘stay relevant’ can easily mess with one’s motives. 

• being intentional about the time I am spending on screens outside of social media (e.g. TV).

These values make the ‘how’ pretty obvious. I think the hard part will be sticking to the plan. 

I am under no illusion that I, someone who has ADHD, will somehow be able to perfectly meet all of my expectations. I’m sure I will somehow get sucked into scrolling on my laptop when I’m uploading a reel on Instagram, or find myself resisting the urge to post a piece of content because posting every day ‘is just what you do’. 

The main thing that my digital minimalism journey has taught me is that I am not a slave to the machine that is social media. I have proven to myself that I can, and will, walk away - and I’m not afraid to do it again.

Will this middle way work? Will it be sustainable? Do I have the discipline? 

Let’s find out, I guess.

I don’t owe anyone an explanation as to my return to social media, but I love exchanging experiences and ideas so I have decided to share this story. The one value I haven’t quite squared away is the idea that this approach inherently means I am contributing to the machine. By making and sharing content I am capturing your attention, even though I am not comfortable giving my own to the same beast (at least at the point in my life - maybe that will change too). 

But I remind myself that I cannot be perfect; it is valid to prioritise my curiosity over my concern that I am perpetuating a consumer market I don’t want to take part in. I cannot control if you take part in consuming content, I can only control if I do - and my hope is that if you do choose to watch it, it brings you value.

It’s not black and white, it’s grey. And that’s okay. Our philosophies of technology use can change over time in response to our needs, but the important take-away is that to be aware of the power of social media is to be able to be intentional about our use of it.

P.s. A reminder to tune in to Sick of scrolling? Digital minimalism could help on All In The Mind - would love to hear what you think of the episode! xoxo