So over the last year I’ve become disgusted with social media and have begun closing the accounts, as in gone, deleted, adios. Do I make any difference? Very unlikely, but I do make a difference in the overall well being of my own life, and in the end, that’s what counts right? The divisive overtones and the politicizing of every single thing on the planet with socials has led me back to simpler ways, with very little remaining internet tech. And to be brutally honest, an Avocet Computer with the magnetic doo-hickey attached to a spoke sounds really nice in this day and age. The socials have taken what was a wonderful concept and utterly destroyed respectable social discourse on every level imaginable. Even an exercise tracking app known as Strava was not immune, with founders’ opinions on political and social matters foisted upon my feed. I ride my bicycles to forget the sorrows in this world, and I certainly won’t pay a premium to Strava to be reminded of them when I post a ride. So after 8 years Strava went down one road and I went down another. It feels great with the wind at my back.
I’m down to one social which is Instagram. And by socials I mean the big 500lb gorillas such Facebook, Twitter, and as mentioned Instagram(aka Facebook). Then there are the overseers in our hands, Apple IOS and Google Android. While I haven’t made the plunge to go into dumdum mobile phone territory yet, I’ve seriously contemplated it. While information is a great thing, it is absolutely ridiculous to decipher what’s real and what’s not anymore. I guess you can say I’m taking the “ignorance is bliss” highroad and leaving it all behind.
I’m hoping by dialing back the socials, financial, retail, and e-commerce giants(yes, many of those cancelled by me too), I gain some sense of sanity in my life. I’ve left suburbia for rural America hoping it brings some bit of happiness to my family. Are we running away? Perhaps. We really didn’t have any problems with suburbia until the last year’s worth of events which I won’t go into out of being polite – leave it to the socials to bring you up to speed there. So far we have had no regrets moving to a small rural city.
Let me be very clear. I’ve never done anyone harm, nor do I intend to, but that’s what we’ve become as a society, almost adversarial through no direct faults of our own. I don’t know what the answers are or the solutions. I really, really don’t. I do know labeling others as X, Y, Z doesn’t help matters at all. Until we can break that barrier, nothing will change for the better. It’s really sad. I’d rather not say anything more on the those specific matters.
It may seem odd to go from socials to a blog, but I look forward to it. The socials are all about little to no attention span content, sprinkled on top with a lot of distracting advertising. I want to bring all of my bike experiences together in a more cohesive way with greater detail, focus on quality, and with detailed stories, hence this blog. And with that, I plan to enjoy a less stressful and much quieter corner of the internet…
zipsterific's drone and fatbike adventures 