It’s the final day of January, the 31st post in a row, and I want to talk about the benefits of reducing social media.

But first, the downsides.

I miss some of my friends I interacted with on Twitter. That’s the biggest problem I’ve had since deleting my Tweets and reducing my time on all social media platforms. Some of those relationships are true friendships, and I look forward to seeing those people in other ways.

Another potential downside: I’m not as on top of news and trends. I fell out of the habit of checking my news aggregator every morning. I’m no longer seeing the Trending Topics, so some things I might like to know about are flying under my radar. For example, the horrendous murder in Pennsylvania, where a son cut off his father’s head, broadcast it, and called for a revolution against Biden.

For some reason, that story didn’t get a ton of coverage. I happened to see something about it on Bluesky, and I found it on some paywalled news sites, but then it’s like the story just vanished. Apparently, the gruesome video was up for hours, and people saw some things they really didn’t want to see. The Pennsylvania murder never showed up on my news aggregator.

That leads nicely into the main benefit: I don’t have to partake in the online drama.

For example, Taylor Swift. Apparently, some people are upset about her dating a football player or something. I’m being vague and light on details here because I don’t know what the beef is, and I really, really don’t care. I hope she has a good time. I think her boyfriend is on the Chiefs, playing against the 49ers in The Big Game so I hope he loses, but really, I hope they make the most of the time they have.

There is a lot of nonsense and bullshit that flows through the social media rivers, and while I still get a big whiff when I visit, I’m no longer drowning in it like I had been. People I will never meet, with opinions I will never agree with, may be saying some absolute nonsense. Chances are, I won’t see it and my life is better for it.

But what about the discourse?

There is no real discourse on social media. No one is scrolling through Twitter looking to expand their horizons or explore the nuance of a topic. On Twitter, you will find memes, advertisements, arguments, threats, blasphemy, nonsense, and war crimes. You know what? I can find memes on Discord.

I sort of like Bluesky, but I’m not as into it as I had been. I like the people I engage with on Facebook, but I can’t stand Zuckerberg. Instagram is kind of fun, but again, Zuckerberg.

There’s probably some political schadenfreude I’ll be missing this year. Actually, social media in the two thousand twenty-fourth year of our Lord is likely to be a radioactive war zone, so maybe I’m not missing anything on that front.

I’m sure you know me by now, and while I’m not going to get into politics that much in this space (for now), I will say: I’m ridin’ with Biden, though not nearly as enthusiastically as some. If the other guy is re-elected, we will probably lose our Republic. That is not hyperbole.

So in summary, while there are things I miss from social media, the main benefit — avoiding the bullshit — outweighs everything else.

Talk to you all tomorrow.