On the Relative Merits of Social Media Sabbaticals

      This summer I took a  short break from Facebook. During my sojourn, I thought long and hard about whether I should retain some sort of online presence and if so, what should that ideally be?  I haven't always been my best self on Facebook and, while I have endeavored to improve my communications by keeping my caustic wit and misanthropy in check and avoiding time-wasting arguments, I often wondered if I was truly contributing anything meaningful or if I was merely being solipsistic and narcissistic.  

    Prior to my mini-break, I had been trying to wean myself away from screens with varying degrees of success. I  sit down at the computer for a couple of minutes here or there throughout the day.  Cumulatively, those minutes add up.  For a while I gravitated to Twitter but I quickly tired of the Twitterverse (the woke hand-wringing does get to be a bit much, even for me, a died in the wool "leftie liberal".   Instagram strikes me as the most upbeat of the social media platforms and I continue to use the platform with alacrity in spite of its problematic elements (the shallow consumer culture of Instagram influencers, odious trolls who pop out of nowhere).  

    I will not delete my Facebook account as I have formed meaningful connections with certain individuals in spite the platform's tendency to encourage the shallow and trite.  In the words of Michelle Obama "it is what it is."  

    I do hope, going forward, to be circumspect about my social media presence and  to devote the lions-share of my energies in to projects involving writing and drawing.  I will utilize this blog for enthusing about things I thought deeply about when I had the luxury of a period of time of quiet introspection (music, movies, cooking, baking, and art)  I have always loved autumn, which for me, has always felt like a beginning rather than an ending so this seemed like as good a time as any to begin.  

    I fervently hope my friends and family are finding moments of quiet joy in what has been an inordinately difficult and stressful year.  If there is one reason to navigate social media's interminable wasteland, it is for glimmerings of creative endeavor and enthusiasm that appear between the endless cycles of offensive memes and fake news. 

    Wherever you are and whatever you are doing I hope you are okay. If you have been thinking about taking a social media break, I recommend it.  It can be worthwhile in ways you might not have previously imagined.  

Take care. Be well.   Love Nadine

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Your Noodle - The Best Peanut Sauce You Have Ever Tasted

Image
 Hello everyone.  How are you?  Are you getting along okay? I hope so. When I was contemplating which recipes I should share in this medium, holy grail dishes sprang to mind. By, "holy grail" I am referring to the handful of recipes in my repertoire which yield outstanding results on a consistent basis.  Recipes that my friends and family clamor for.  At the top of the list is peanut noodles, a dish Steve has asked me to make more than any other.   As you may have observed if you read any of my previous posts, I am on a bit of a bowl food kick. This one has the advantage of not only being served in one vessel, it is prepared all in one pan (minus the peanut sauce, which you can make head), thereby minimizing washing up I have never met a peanut sauce I did not like.  However, some are definitely better than others.  Some peanut sauces are bland and claggy, others overly sweet and lacking in acidity. I try to refrain from hyperbole but I can c...
Read more

In Praise of Bowl Food

Image
 Hello there. How are you?  I hope you are getting along ok. I confess, I plot ways of getting S. to eat more vegetables (breakfast cereal being his favourite food group) as he is my favourite human and I'd like to keep him around for as long as possible. The way to manage this feat, has been via recipes the cool kids refer to as "bowl food".  Bowl recipes connote more than the vessel they are served in. A bowl constitutes a complete meal in one, that is a grain or starch, a protein, and one or more servings of vegetables served all in one, though not necessarily jumbled together.  My favourite renditions of these dishes are topped with sort of tasty sauce which,  like the rug in the Big Lebowski, "tie it all together". Recently, I did some mild rejigging of a bowl recipe from one of my favourite culinary sources, America's Test Kitchen. The results were met with resounding enthusiasm. I thought it prudent to share as I have never understood people who hoard...
Read more

SHEET PAN DINNER - FOR THOSE NIGHTS WHEN YOU ARE TOO EXHAUSTED TO BREATHE

Image
  Hello. I am writing this in the wee hours on a dark, wintry morning, plagued, as I often am, with insomnia. The quiet of the early hours is lovely and almost makes up for my bleary-eyed stupor.  How are you? I hope you are getting along okay. Over the years, people have frequently told me, with a slight sneer and a certain haughtiness that "I must have A LOT of time on my hands if I cook for myself", I am  perplexed as I have always cooked out of practical necessity and I assumed that most other people did that also. Most of us are not independently wealthy. As a young adult, I did not have enough disposable income, no, make that, I had NO disposable income, that would allow me the luxury of eating in restaurants every day. And I did not wish to subsist on a steady diet of prepackaged food, loaded as it often is with trans fats, preservatives, salt and sugar. Take out, while a lovely treat, now and again, (who doesn't love the occasional pizza or Thai curry?) tends to b...
Read more