Let Social Media Die

    I am writing this before my internet break. I know full well I may feel differently once I get off my break. I have a feeling I won't feel any different. 

    Don't get me wrong. I love the internet's entertainment as much as the next person does. I just wish the internet was mortal. That it had a date of ending. That we would all wake up one morning and find that we can't get on Facebook anymore. That we can't have another argument on X / Twitter. That we can't like another Instagram Reel or TikTok again. That YouTube videos no longer worked as ad dispensers. That Twitch ceased to exist.

    I love the accurate informational side of the internet. The one that has to be fact-checked, researched, and proven to be the most precise it can be before we even get an idea to look up that information. I also appreciate the creativity of the internet, especially the art and the writing.

    I do not like that everyone can manipulate their opinions into facts here. I do not like that somehow we collectively let the machines and the assholes that run the machines decide how we collectively feel for the hour or minute we look to see what is going on.

    Let social media in its current form die. Let it pass away. Let the "Dead Internet Theory" become "Dead Internet Fact." We can leave the bots to manipulate each other in their own digital playpen. 

    I want to go to the library to read up on information. I want to go to the town hall to hear about politics that matter to my community. I want to go out to talk to people about how they feel, not how someone else told them to feel. I want to see the truest array of my community out in full force without feeling like they have to conform to some machine's idea of who they are. I want all the nuance. I want all the grey area. I want to be alive in the natural world again. 

    Today in the final day I will make my decision on this matter. Today I will put my foot down on my digital use, especially on Twitch, YouTube, and Discord. No matter what, I will keep this blog running. After all, it is about to have its 8th birthday in November. I would hate to stop something that has been recording my thoughts and writings for so long.

    Heck, I want future "published author" me to point to this blog at a reading or a writing panel and go, "Wanna see what madness I was up to back in the day? Well, here it is! All the human parts of it."

    Let's see how long I can go with this. Let's see how far I can go with my writing and my life. 

    I will gladly kill social media to do it. I will let it die.