Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

One of the best ways to start getting away from social media is to think about where we put our stuff. We’re so conditioned to upload a photo, a thought, a hot-take to social media because we know something will happen – likes, comments, shares, etc. It’s absolutely the slot machine at the casino – insert coin, pull the lever, and something will happen.

Instead of posting that photo for “everyone,” try sending it to a friend and see what happens. Send it to another, with a little note.

Maybe post that photo on your blog and write a bit about it, and send a newsletter later to let people know about it.

Instead of posting your “hot takes” and opinions and ideas onto a platform to be monetized by Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, use them elsewhere for your benefit.

As I wrote a year ago in ‘Practice leaving social media,’ “the spontaneous bits you’d post on social media can be the source material for your next newsletter, text to a pal, Discord group, or next live Zoom hangout with good people.”

We won’t get the same dopamine hit from these actions. They won’t go viral. But maybe they’re the start of something better, like deeper relationships, or strengthening friendships.

It’s hard to be good friends with 10 people in your life when you’re always trying to entertain 1,000 strangers.

What’s your sense of the moment we’re living in now, in terms of art and communication, compared to a few years ago?

It’s probably biased, because I talk to a lot of people who are looking to get away from social media. But that’s okay, that’s who I want to talk to. I don’t want to talk to people about maximizing reach with paid ads on Facebook, I want to talk to people printing out their poetry and leaving copies around town.

Read more of this interview over at Soul Writer.

It’s as if these social media platforms (including Substack Notes) are designed to instill feelings of “not doing enough” that pulls us closer to engaging with their bullshit games for bullshit prizes.

Your work isn’t meant for the carnival circuit – “step right up, spin the wheel!”

Your work is the quiet corner of a library or the small group Zoom calls. Your essays and poems bloom in time, right where they are.

Thank you Mary Thoma, GeorgeAnn, Richard Schulz, Michael Maupin, Ken Seals, and many others for tuning into my “live office hour video” on Substack Live.

I don’t know what to call these. Do they need a name? I just know I like going “live” and helping people out. Shooting the breeze, talking about our lived experiences. It’s a joy, really.

Eventually Mary Thoma dropped a great question in the chat: she’s got a Substack newsletter, and has 4,000 followers on Facebook, and she’s worried about losing that audience she’s built over there on Meta.

I riffed on how only a small fraction (maybe 100–300) are actually seeing her posts, and so you need to do what you can to move your biggest fans off it.

“The vault is still open,” I said, meaning she can still reach those folks (I wrote about this here).

So today you can ask (reply to, DM) your biggest fans to join her email list, which is something she can actually own for years and years. You can build a sustainable career with an email list!

I talked about how I had around 2,300 Twitter followers but only 20 or send ended up subscribing to Social Media Escape Club.

Some people just wanna be on social media!

Mary mentioned that her Facebook audience, “wants to know what I’m doing but doesn’t want to read,” and I said, “Later. Bye.”

I’m not trying to be harsh, but maybe I am! If you’re writing a memoir, then people that wanna scroll on FB for three hours a day might be your target audience!

That’s when Mary mentioned she has 600 newsletter subscribers.

Oh, well then.

So then I mentioned that maybe her energy is better spent “watering the garden” of her 600 current subscribers than chasing strangers. And I think that’s true for a lot of us.

Write the best newsletter you can for the people who signed up for it, and then some of them will the marketing for you.

You don’t need everyone. You need the right people, and you’ll find them (and they’ll find you) by committing to the work you’re meant to be doing.

Full replay below:

We’re going to see more of this in the months to come.

“The London Marathon will no longer post on X after its race director Hugh Brasher said the social media platform had “ceased to be a positive place“.

The London Marathon’s official account, which has 191,000 followers, last posted on X on 17 January 2025.”

The London Marathon probably has quite an email list, and decades of branding behind it. But don’t let that stop you from leaving places or platforms that no longer feel right.

Link via Fast Women.