But (lol) much as my leaving social media has done wonders for my personal wellbeing and mental health – for reasons I detail in this post – it has not helped my business or my creativity. This is mainly thanks to the pandemic, with lack of in person socialising making online socialising more useful than ever.
So, my business and my creativity, not me, will be going back on some social media. Time spent on it will be very limited and for very specific purposes. I won’t be posting selfies, or letting people into my personal life, or discussing my political opinions. Mainly because my political opinions these days amount to: “fuck off and leave me alone”. The only political movement I’d be tempted by for the foreseeable is Bill Hick’s “People Who Hate People Party”:
I have no interest in participating in a society in which, as someone observant apparently said: ‘tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles’. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but the more we shut up and try to appease the terminally offended, the more it becomes possible. In the meantime art, creativity and culture are silenced and strangled to death by the kind of people who will claim words are violence while brandishing weapons and threatening to throat punch you.
Social media appears to enable and reward the most toxic personality types and delusional, aggressive and stupid behaviour, Twitter being worst. I want to spend a few hours a week using them like I want to spend a few hours a week in a gulag. But since so many of you insist on staying in the damn gulag, it seems I am forced to come back in and join you. Through the great big hole in the wall. You know, the one that leads outside, back into the real world?
Plato’s allegory of the cave no longer seems to be an allegory.
Anyway, there are still quite a few of you out there who like the work I am still willing to show and that makes me happy, so I’ll do what I want. I have a feeling my best friend on social media will be the block function though, as those platforms are so full of absolute nutters. I will be posting content I cannot risk posting there here, as well as reposting some content I had previously redacted, because fuck self-censorship. Elsewhere, I will try to remain radio friendly, but won’t be surprised when I get banned for reasons Kafka would be proud of.
Find me on:
Instagram | Goodreads | Gettr | Gab
And if there’s a platform you recommend, let me know.
Update: I’ve given up on Facebook and LinkedIn as they both seem to be stopping my posts from being seen, making them utterly useless. Instagram appears to be doing similar, but I will try it some more before I give up as it doesn’t seem quite as bad. Gab seems way too political for my taste, and Gettr seems very tough to crack if you’re not already famous. If Elon Musk buys Twitter and actually turns it into a platform where free speech is welcome and totalitarian idiots are not, then it could be worth a whirl again. Otherwise, I might try Minds if I get time as it has been recommended and seems like the best alternative. And who knows, maybe I’ll try Deviant Art again.
Janice Duke Illustration 
Welcome back to the hell of social media, where rather than currency we utilise photographs of various body parts and poor taste jokes🤔
I’ve seen far too many photographs of various body parts in just the last few days. More poor taste jokes would be welcome 😂
Bill Hicks what a legend he was. Still love hos little bit on the Third Eye song by Tool. Ill give you a follow on insta when i get home. Thats only social media i started up and never did anything with.
Love Bill Hicks, total legend! Cheers for that, and not bothering with social media if you can help it is a good move if you ask me.
Never bothered with it too much to be honest. Facebook is only there for my family that are all across the globe
You sure we’re not going to tempt you back onto Twitter then? You’ll be like Cypher in the Matrix, turning over us rebellious scoundrels for a few hundred likes. 😂 Nah I hear you, social media has turned into such a bad thing for our society hasn’t it? I’ve given up most of mine and life is a hell of a lot better for it. I can see why it would be worthwhile going back on it for someone like yourself though, you’ve got a lot of excellent work and sadly the way to show that to people lies in going back into the gulag. Plus there are still decent people out there to connect with, they’re just all too often drowned out by the mob. Sift the people to find the humans, and close the door firmly in the face of any trolls you encounter, and you’ll be fine. 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Very well put. That’s pretty much the attitude I am taking. I’ll be using social media for my own purposes, rather than being used by it.
As for Twitter, if I had my way it would be nuked from orbit just to be sure 😂
That’s uncanny, I have the same political opinions as you haha. I’m on Instagram to promote our podcast but if it wasn’t for that I’d pull the pin. This blog is my home because it’s like joining a club for like minded people.
Hehe 😂 If you’re there to promote something that’s a specific purpose you’re focused on 👍 It’s the people on social media for no good reason going out of their minds that worry me. You’re right, blogging is like joining a club for like minded people, so it’s actually enjoyable! I nearly pulled the plug on everything a while back, but I enjoy the blog, so now I’m focusing on just enjoying my work again and finding decent people to share with ☺️
Excellent
Just found your podcast on Spotify and gave you a follow. It’s just you and Joe Rogan, as he’s the only reason I have that app 😂 Also gave you some follows on Instagram ☺️
Ohhh the IRO podcast is in Hiatus and so is the IRO Instagram haha. I was referring to Flyonthewallpodcast Not sure if that’d be your cup of tea. It’s crass and dark humoured BUT the more you listen the more you’ll hear that my co-host and I are decent blokes. Just idiots haha. Thanks for the follies though 😊😉👍🏼
I followed both 😉 Listened to the latest Flyonthewall this afternoon while sketching and enjoyed very much! Crass and dark humoured is definitely me! 😂 Also enjoyed the mention of a certain blogger you may or may not be aware is my other half ☺️
Oh haha great. I’m glad you like it. Haha and yes I was aware that the great Wudugast is your other half. He’s a hobby hero of mine.
Well, if you ever get that Warhammer World excursion arranged, I’m sure he’d be happy to join you. Would give him a great excuse for another visit!
Sigh… one day hehe
Your posts on this SocMed are spot on, this circus of so called social thing blurrs the boundaries and robs users of their common and critic sense.
Beautifully written, bravo!👍 let’s keep hope.
Yes. Let’s keep hope. That’s important. So much of the social media circus can be very demoralising if we aren’t careful. Thank you 😊
You got it figured out. Nice to see!
Maybe? 😂 Thanks!