Own Your Feed

Be your own "For You" page.

Ours is an era of endless entertainment.

While our parents their shitty late-night reruns, and their parents simply had to turn the TV off after programming ended, we can access nearly any form of entertainment mankind has produced in seconds.

We have access to every of story of love, loss, adventure, and hope reignited against impossible odds. The universe is truly at our fingertips.

Yet there you are, at the two hour mark of another nightly doomscroll.

You’ve consumed everything, and yet you’ve processed nothing. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Oftentimes, we see art and entertainment as one and the same. That all forms of art are designed for that purpose, therefore anything designed for that purpose must be as enriching and empowering as art can be.

That’d be wrong.

We spend time on our phones scrolling through digital skinner boxes designed to hold our attention, not enrich our lives.

In your hands lies a digital skinner box, offering you not a guarantee, but a chance with every swipe that the next thing you see might just ignite something in you- no matter how small.

it doesn’t have to be that way.

I know I’m just another voice begging you to read a book and go outside, but it’s only because i have, in the short time i’ve endeavored to do so, found so much fulfillment and enrichment in a world full of content and experiences of my own design.

Now, i’m sure you must be thinking of the potential consequences of “logging out” and all of the DM’s, TikToks, and planned meetups you’ll miss out on if you go scorched earth on social media. To that, I’ve found a simple solution:

Turn off notifications.

Before our phones existed as extensions of our connection to the world at large, it and the internet itself were places we went to check in with recent events. Like checking a mailbox or getting a newspaper, i found it’s easier to control my screen time and divorce myself from constantly checking in if i allow social media to be that again: something i have to actively check, but not be reminded of.

In the meantime, I’ve found more and more fulfillment in the experiences I’ve sought: movies are more fulfilling, books are easier to get through, and I can recall the days I’ve had better than ever before.

Ditching social media doesn’t have to be a full stop decision, a simple step back may be all you need.