Day 1 of my effort to keep off social media was a success. Here’s Day 2.

As I reported yesterday, I’ve decided to take a break from social media and put everything I would have posted on Mastodon in a blog post. I’ve come away with two conclusions:

• I did not post as much here as I would have on Mastodon. I’d say what I posted here was about 70% of my usual output and 0% of of what I’d post as a reply to someone else. (You can’t reply to something you don’t see.)
• I post a lot of boring stuff. Sorry.
• I post some interesting stuff. I guess that’s why I have social media followers.
• It was helpful in my effort to stay off social media to post these things here. I hope you don’t mind assisting me in my therapy by seeing these. (You can help even more by commenting.)
• I missed the interaction with other Mastodon users who I genuinely like. I miss them and most of their posts. I miss their reactions to mine.
• In a way, these posts are a compilation of what WordPress calls “asides.” I’ve never used the feature because I didn’t want to put the effort in to display them as I wanted them to display in my blog, with special formatting, etc. I think I was drawn to Twitter back in 2007 because it enabled me to share these short tidbits throughout the day. That’s definitely what drew me to Mastodon as Twitter’s replacement.

I did find myself in social media withdrawal, where I saw or thought something I wanted to share and reached for my phone but then remembered I was off social media and put it down. It’s not quite as easy to step over to the computer and add a social media style post, as I did yesterday and will begin doing shortly today.

Social media apps make it too convenient to participate. No wonder we see so many people with their heads down looking at their phones. I’ve managed to avoid that when I’m with other people, but it’s hard to avoid it when I’m alone, waiting for a meal at a restaurant or just taking a break between other tasks.

Today’s Social Media Posts

Anyway, here are today’s posts, for what they are worth.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 9:16 AM Started my second day without checking social media. Yesterday was not quite as difficult as I thought it would be, but I did miss interaction with my friends there.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 9:20 AM Gorgeous day. Temperatures should get into the 50s, although the wind is supposed to kick up again later. This is our windy season, so that’s no surprise. I’m hoping to finish cleaning the boat’s aft cockpit lockers so I can start loading required equipment and spares back into them. I’ll be taking it to Bellingham on Tuesday.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 9:25 AM The sun is coming through my front windows for the first time this year. That means the sun has moved far enough north to clear the cliffs early enough to shine into the east side of my house. My calendar notes said this would happen next Wednesday, but apparently it was cloudy every day until 3/25 on the year I made the note. (Yes, I track the sun movements in relation to my home.)

Saturday, March 22, 2025 11:18 AM I got about 2 hours of work done on my Great Loop book. Between editing Thursday’s work and adding new text (mostly from my blog), I have a net addition of 3,017 words, which just meets my 3,000 word goal. The sun is out on the boat so it’s time to get some more chores done out there.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 1:28 PM Did some boat cleaning. The cockpit lockers are pretty dirty on the bottom and aren’t coming as clean as I’d like. I hope my work satisfies the charter company. If not, I’m prepared with Kilz and a good outdoor paint roughly the same color as the painted wood locker floors and can do it in Bellingham. 1/2

I took a break to make lunch: a Paleo Mousaka that I really like. The paleo part comes from the “cheese” on top being made with coconut milk, arrowroot flour, and an egg. This is one of my favorite recipes and it freezes well. I make it with lamb, as it should be made. 2/2

Saturday, March 22, 2025 2:05 PM FedEx Ground, which is now delivering to my home perfectly, brought some bookbinding paper I was waiting for. I’ll be using it to create a hand-bound guest book for my boat. I’ll do the printing this afternoon.

Interest Lost

And that’s all I fake posted about yesterday. I know I would have posted more online — I kept very busy yesterday and had a lot to share — but having to sit at my computer to type in the content of a post made it inconvenient. I’d rather get stuff done.

But in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? Does anyone really care what I have to say?

There’s a guy on Mastodon who posts all the time and doesn’t get much engagement with his posts. Recently, all of his posts have turned into whining complaints about how few likes and boosts he gets and how his follower count has become stagnant. As if he thinks he’s some sort of celebrity or “influencer” that people want to follow closely. He’s not.

And I’m not either. But I know that and accept it.

I’m there for the interaction, but there are so few who people I enjoy interacting with that I’m not sure it’s worthwhile anymore.

And yes, I know I blogged about this back in February. And I know it sounds like I’m whining now. So I’ll stop.

It’s Sunday morning and I’ll put this online and get back to regular blogging this week. Thanks for bearing with me during this experiment.