2024 Digital and Social Media Fast

This is a weird article to serve as the first in over a year, but what are you going to do?

Photo by Ajeet Mestry on Unsplash

Every July, I take a Social Media Fast, minimizing my digital life to slow down and refocus spiritually and emotionally. This has been a great discipline for nearly twenty years (it started with not reading blogs), and it evolves each year depending on the needs of the moment and our ever-changing digital landscape.

When I get back, I recalibrate what platforms I will use and how I intend to use them. Last year, I decided to stop writing long-form posts (such as Substack) and instead use short-form videos (on Instagram and TikTok). I plan on rethinking this so I figured I’d get input from the most biased people in the world: people like you who have subscribed to my posts.

Where do you think I should spend my time and energy posting this coming year?

Please answer in the comment section on this article, and I’ll sneak over here a couple of times in July to see what you say.

With that out of the way, here’s what July is going to look like for me this year:

• Factory reset my phone and add apps back as I need them

• No social media or news

• No podcasts

• No binging a series (although I reserve the right the watch a movie here or there)

• Check email minimally and according to a predetermined schedule

• Read Exodus once, Listen to Exodus twice (that’s called foreshadowing)

• Read a novel or two

• Read (or listen to) at least two other books, but probably more

• Take a vacation with friends

• Ride my motorcycle a lot

• Fix the dang project motorcycle that’s taking up garage space

I’ll let you all know how things went when I get back in August!