#AntiSocial Day 2: Phantom Pains from the Lack of Social Media.

Day #2:

Facebook and Twitter (and Instagram, which I almost never looked at) were all located in the swipe-over app tray on my Samsung Note 9.

In their place, I added Google Play books (hey, sometimes they have cheaper books than Kindle), the Anchor app (I’m experimenting with a podcast called Seth Tower Hurd and Friends) and a second audiobooks app.

The crazy thing is I still have “phantom pain.” Probably 15 times today I’ve either swiped over on the app tray or gone to facebook.com or twitter.com thinking I was getting a hit of dopamine. As soon as the apps aren’t readily available or I have to type my login and password back in (on the browser window), I’m ready to leave again. It’s like if I was in AA and at every liquor store there was a sponsor ready to say “you sure you wanna blow your sobriety on this Tuesday?” Viewing the choice as a choice (rather than instinct) is all I need to walk away.

I’m the junkie who started taking hits at a party and now wakes up and reaches for a fix. But if the fix isn’t within reach, I can shower and go to work.

One final observation for day two. Although social media has changed a lot (more on that another day), the biggest thing for me is that I don’t have any endless-scroll options anymore…