social media – Andy writes!

I’d gotten sick and tired of the news — and even more weary of the distortions and reverberations of news and pseudo-news that skittered around the social media universe like ripples from a thousand stones thrown simultaneously into a sludgy pond. Stories and rumors of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, the backlash to Taylor Swift’s announced support for Kamala Harris, the hate and vitriol spewing forth on cable news and X, which Elon Musk, despite his supposed commitment to making the platform a space for free speech, has turned into a raging hate machine — all of it was taking its toll on my soul and psyche.

So I decided to heavily curtail my consumption of news and news-related information. I could go without news for a week, I thought to myself. It wouldn’t be easy for an info-junkie like me, but I would do my best.

One of the best things to come out of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (now X) is Lists, a tool to help denizens of that website organize, categorize and curate social media accounts by subject or interest.

Even though the platform has become less useful, less interesting, and more soul-sucking since Elon Musk bought it, you can still find nuggets of value as long as you use it wisely and stay away from the cesspool of the general feed. One way of walling yourself off from that toxicity is by creating lists of the accounts you most want to follow, or by following lists curated by trusted sources.