Did you start your own cyber cleanse yet? A few months ago, I almost quit Google and Meta. Not completely, because some groups I can’t live without still use GoogleDrive folders to cowrite or WhatsApp to get organized. Everything I run and write myself is now elsewhere, but it’s still hard to get bigger groups to make the switch. Now, I’m offline more. I do use other social media, but I post less, and am less dependent on the dopamine hit. It’s a convoluted process, and I’m late to the party, but it’s great to see your digital footprint shrink.
Reclaiming your brain is what I called it. Less distraction. More time to connect and read and write in ways I choose, rather than in ways chosen for me by an algorithm. It sounds hermit-like, and it could be, but writers I admire show me see how they do it. Jeanette Winterson is one. Of course, no platform is perfect. It’s like mozzarella, once you pull at one bit the whole lot stretches and if you’re not careful, you’ll never be done. Very sporadically, I’m keeping a ship’s log of what I have stopped and started doing to be online in a way that’s hopefully more ethical. It’s not a to-do list, it’s a done list. So I can see how I’m navigating.
I’m writing this days before a monthlong shut down. In July, Finland is closed for business. Like August in Mediterranean countries. Here, the summer is so short, if you don’t grab it with both hands, it will slip through your fingers. Take your 24-hour sunlight now, get your vitamin D while stocks last – you’ll need it in winter. School holidays are ten weeks. Offices send emails that they’re open again in six weeks. In many places, even two weeks would be impossible. But should it be?
If you can’t stop, what little things can you do to slow down? Mute notifications. Audio calls instead of video. Take longer breaks, starting later, finishing earlier. Meet in person. Get outside. On Monday I inflated the paddle boards, a sure sign of summer. In the next few weeks, I’ll try to end the workday out on the water, or in it, swimming. While most folks around me are on holiday, but I’m not, yet, I try to get the balance that I’d have on a writing retreat. Long enough breaks, social connection, food, exercise, rest. That still leaves four hours a day to write.
Reclaiming your brain is hard. But so worth it.
Ridge Writing Retreats 