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Daniel Appleton's avatar

I try to " FAST " whenever I can, especially with so much negativity in the media. At least I don't have a smartphone that I feel compelled to check every 2 minutes, I'm not on Twitter / X, FB / Meta or Instagram.

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James Murdock's avatar

Good for you, my friend. That sounds like a freer existence than most are experiencing. I have been looking into dumb phones, but also found this mode on iphone where it essentially only makes a few apps available to you. We do what we can. Thanks for reading!

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Daniel Appleton's avatar

If I decide to become a cyborg, I'll do something more public ! 😆😀

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Juliet Wilson's avatar

I don't have a smartphone and hope I don't need to ever get one (more and more services now make things difficult to do without a smartphone). Since leaving Twitter I've been on social media much less (though I'm still on Facebook and do use BlueSky and obviously Substack!).

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James Murdock's avatar

Thanks, Juliet. I admire you for resisting a smartphone. I’m also looking into “dumb phones.” Smartphones make it too easy to get sucked in. Same here on limiting social media and media in general. I want to come up with some finite parameters on how and when to use apps like instagram.

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Daniel Appleton's avatar

Is Substack considered social media ? Or more information / op - ed ?

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James Murdock's avatar

I would say the notes function of substack is definitely social media. People on there are posting pics of their cat or what they are for breakfast. I kind of wish the notes function didn’t exist. Substack seemed more pure before that. I’d def consider the true writing/reading part of Substack less like SM. What do you think?

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Juliet Wilson's avatar

I agree, Substack notes is social media,

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Daniel Appleton's avatar

Hopefully no LOLCATS. 😀🤨

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James Murdock's avatar

Nothing against cats, just lolcats. If they were writing about cats then I’d be into it.

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Daniel Appleton's avatar

Notes can make it look slightly more " fleshed out " at times perhaps.

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Neil Barker's avatar

This sounds like such a great practice to do and take fasts from social media and general "always on connectivity", James. Thanks for sharing your experience.

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James Murdock's avatar

Thanks so much for reading, Neil!

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Daniel Appleton's avatar

The only real purpose of social media is either keeping up with family & friends or using it for business purposes. I only joined FB / Meta to stay in touch with my folks.

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