How I use social media
Flowers from Instagram
The price of free content
Take this as an invitation to unsubscribe, unfollow, or unfriend me.
I’m aware that how I spend my time has a direct effect on my mind states. Also, I’m not a renunciant living in a cave. So how can social media be a part of my practice?
I had an epiphany this week. The secret to consuming content online is to have very strict limits on how much I subscribe to.
I enjoy Instagram so much more since I went from following 900 people to only 200. And Substack became a nightmare when I subscribed to too many newsletters.
Minimalism is the key, for me at least. Here’s how I’m consuming content now and what’s working for me.
Substack
I use this platform for my newsletter, The Creative Buddhist. Here’s my routine:
Have an upper subscription limit of 15 newsletters, which equals around 15 letters a week (some are twice weekly, others just once a month).
Delete the emails as they come in and read them in the app instead (I could change the settings and not receive the emails at all).
Treat them as a magazine you’ve curated yourself, reading them in bed with coffee on the weekend. The average is around 5 mins to read, so it’s just over an hour a week.
Pay for the ones you value most or the people you want to support.
Think twice before you subscribe to a free newsletter, in the same way you do before paying. Free subscriptions cost you your attention and overall enjoyment.
There are great newsletters I’m not subscribing to. There are friends with newsletters I’m not subscribing to. It’s difficult. But I know if I don’t limit myself, I’ll stop enjoying any of them.
It’s like going for a meal in a new restaurant. There are many dishes you know you’d enjoy, but you also know if you order all of them, you’ll enjoy none of them.
Connect with me on Substack, or don’t!
I use Instagram to share my creative work, but it’s also where I get a lot of inspiration. Here are the rules I have for myself:
Follow a maximum of 250 accounts (as I write this I’m nearer 200). I can go into stories and watch them till the end in a relatively short amount of time. Then I’m done.
Post content to stories and consume content via stories (there are fewer ads).
Spend time once a day on Instagram, posting, engaging and sharing. Make it late in the day.
If Substack is like choosing from a restaurant menu, then Instagram is getting something from the snack cupboard. Don’t take the whole family bag of discount crisps to the sofa. Just a few smoked almonds in a nice bowl.
Connect with me on Instagram, or don’t!
Threads and Notes
These are both loose copies of Twitter. They are text-based and meant for threaded conversations.
Notes lives in Substack and Threads is an offshoot of Instagram. I’m in both places but have hardly any friends there! The jury is out on whether I’ll find real value in either. But I’m up for a good chat or a laugh.
Food analogy? Perhaps this is the dish that you persuaded your partner to order. You weren’t sure, but you wanted to try it. You feared you might be missing out.
Please connect with me on Threads or Notes, I have no friends there!
I’d come off Facebook altogether if it wasn’t for groups. I’m in a group with my Buddhist Sangha. And another for people like me trying to get their Swedish residency. There’s one called Brits in Sweden, which is useful and hilarious (where can I find an English curry here?). My tips:
Don’t follow anyone.
Don’t use the Facebook feed, just check in on groups (click on ‘menu’ > ‘feeds’ and then choose ‘groups).
Mm, I’m finally stuck with a food analogy for Facebook! Put your suggestions in the comments!
This notification came through on my email recently:
Jane Smith just subscribed to The Creative Buddhist. Jane Smith reads this newsletter and that newsletter, as well as 570 other newsletters on Substack.
Don’t be Jane. Less is more. Cull, cull, cull (but don’t cull me!)
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