Category: sethwCategory: sethw

I set up at a punk rock flea market last weekend with a friend, along with a stack of neon flyers and some old music gear to sell. I made some good sales, but I also had some great conversations.

A dozen people stopped by to talk about quitting social media, ditching Spotify, or just wanting something beyond the feed. Some chats were lighthearted, and others felt almost like confessions. What struck me was how different it felt compared to sending out a newsletter or posting online. The proximity, the in-person energy, it all gave the words so much more weight.

It made me wonder: what if we built more spaces like this? Not just tables with stuff to sell, but couches, chairs, maybe even a little “confession booth” for honest conversations about our relationship with these platforms. That’s where the real escape feels possible, not just by deleting some apps, but in the spaces we make to talk openly and honestly about spending less time on our phones.

Subscribe to CURRENTS with this link: https://feeds.transistor.fm/smec-currents

Putting our best work on platforms we don’t control, or which most of the world won’t see, might not be the best use of our time.

Posts on social media wash away like sand castles. Meanwhile our websites haven’t been updated in months.

And that’s a shame, since I see so much effort that goes into these social media posts.

So many reflections, insights, big ideas, all finely worded and crafted, all just so 3% of our “followers” might see it.

Instead, we could put that work on our websites.

It’s not about “driving eyeballs to our websites,” it’s about having something on our website worth reading. So when someone is interested enough to click, they can actually dig deeper and find out what you’re about.

Sure, that might “only” be a handful of people, but give me two genuinely curious people per day on my website instead of 100 people at the food court looking for chicken nuggets. That’s why we put our best work on our websites. Our thoughts, photos, ideas, videos become a feed on our own websites, in our own ecosystem, with our own branding and colors and vibes.

Yes, you can use platforms to showcase your work, but those feeds will expire one day. You’ll stop updating X, or walk away from LinkedIn, or Instagram will lock you out of your account, or something else beyond your control.

Smartphones ship with a web browsers, not social media apps.

Amelia Hruby, PHD of the Off The Grid podcast is our guest on this week’s Escape Pod Zoom call.

Peabody-winning producer, journalist, and cat rap pioneer Sean CannonSean Cannon, from a recent Escape Pod guest appearance.

“All you have to do is just be 5% better than everyone else who’s really bad at it. You don’t have to get everything perfect… you just have to be a little bit better so you can survive the war of attrition.”

You don’t have to our run a bear, you just need to out run your friends.

This is not meant as hard and fast advice, but something to chew on:

Be yourself, and don’t confuse the market.

The simpler and more direct I can make my branding, the more genuine it will feel. Ultimately all I need to do is be true to myself (sometimes this is hard to do though!).

Read more: https://tomcritchlow.com/2016/08/01/brand

It don’t have to be pretty, it just had to be done.

I’m setting up at a the Lehigh Valley Punk Rock Flea Market this weekend with a friend, and I’ll be selling some musical equipment and records and Star Wars books.

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025
Vendor Time: 10 AM – 4 PM
Live Music Time: 4:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: The Ice House, 56 River St, Bethlehem, PA 18018

I made a few of these for curious onlookers to pick up and discover the magic of Social Media Escape Club because there’s a great big world out there that might never know about this community!

The text, “Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer,” is from a 2024 post titled “It’s time to do whatever we want.”

As in, we can spend a couple of bucks at a local print shop and make something like this, instead of paying Meta or Twitter to “boost” our posts for absolutely nobody to see.

At least this way maybe three people discover my work, right? And maybe one becomes a member?

Plus, I’ll be having a great day hanging out with my BFF as we try to unload gear we don’t use anymore. I’m forecasting a great return on investment.