Ever since I was a young bambino, I knew I wanted to start a blog. That’s a complete lie. I only wanted to start a blog, hmmm, two years ago? More or less? I think that’s when the idea first came to mind. It was 2022, my phone was completely full of storage and had begun to take away my privileges, starting with Snapchat. I was no longer allowed to use my camera or microphone on the app, which is kind of the whole app, so I deleted it. For years, I had used the thing to document my life, so when I was left without it, I was going through withdrawal or something. It was scary. I considered starting a blog, but I had no idea how to do that nor did I really wish to learn, so I moved on with my life.
Flash forward to 2024. I am once again going through withdrawal. This time from Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. My whole livelihood.
I’ve given up Instagram before, for about two years—2020 to 2022. I realized I was on it a bit too much, and I didn’t like that. It didn’t make me feel good. I re-downloaded it in 2022 to use as an archive for photos I had taken of stuff around my high school. Then, when college came around, I began using it for more—started posting different pictures, and started using the dm feature, as well as the stories. That was the beginning of the end. Those damn stories.
Listen, it’s not my fault no one likes texting. What do you mean you want to use the universal feature on your phone specifically designed to efficiently communicate to talk to me? No, no, no, let’s use this third-party app where messaging isn’t even the main feature to talk! Mannnn. Okay. It is my fault I’m funny, though. Unfortunately, my humor is best displayed via social media story, and Instagram filled the hole that Snapchat left.
But I am sick of it! Sick! Of! It! And not just of Instagram. Alllllll of it.
I don’t like the fastness and the vastness of social media. Trends are getting a bit too much, don’t you think? Everyone is obsessed with one thing for a day and then it becomes old news the next. And there’s just so much of everything. Of everyone. There’s billions of people who live on my phone, trying to tell me what to think, feel, wear, like, hate, be, do. It sucks!
I want to be my own person. I want to get stimuli from primary sources and make up my own opinion about it, you know what I mean? I want to disconnect—try to stay away from my phone as much as possible—so I’m quitting social media. Not as cold turkey as in 2020, but more extensive.
Here’s the deal: I am deleting Instagram off my phone, but I want to finish posting my school photos (I’ll post via my laptop or iPad). Yes, I’ve been posting them for two years. Yes, I still have 200+ to go. Now you understand why I was completely out of storage in 2022. I’m going to try to post semi-daily to try and flush these damn photos out. As soon as I’m done, I’ll try to drop it for good. Until then, I am going to stop posting stories. I’m sorry to the story fans, but it is my greatest vice. My first friend, my enemy… I will continue to update the people on the White Boy of the Month, no worries, but besides that I think it’s a wrap on the odetosilliness stories. Mostly. Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. I might regret this decision… But then again, if I regret it, it probably means I really need to stop.
…Is that how it works? I guess we’ll see.
I am keeping Pinterest on my phone because my Monster High themed phone layout took me days to make and it uses Pinterest widgets, so no way am I deleting that shit, are you kidding me? But I am not allowing myself to use it on my phone. If I want to look for crochet inspo, I have to go onto the laptop for that. #Restraint
This is probably the longest I’ve gone without watching an actual YouTube video in months. I’ve been watching podcasts because my job is just tedious work at the moment, but besides that I haven’t been on it! This is huge for me. It’s been an easy transition, though; I’ve just replaced it with Love Island. I may allow non-podcast YouTube videos on the weekends, or maybe even just one day per week. Maybe once a month! Or never! Who knows! To be determined.
In comparison to my 2020 social media blackout, this is nothing. The only thing, really, is the price of disconnecting, which is being disconnected. Duh.
Without having a connection to the online world, what will my real world look like? Will I be completely detached from my peers? Will I lose my mind and give up in a week? Or in a more optimistic outlook, will I discover wonderful things that I was too distracted to see before? I’m not sure, but I want to find out. And I want to document it! So thus, the blog.
Truth is, I love talking about myself, and blogging makes it so I don’t have to force people to listen. You chose to be here, buddy. No getting mad that all I do is babble on about myself—you agreed to this.
I plan on posting once a week on Saturdays. I’m extremely late with this one because YOU try making a website for the first time, okay?! My posts will be about me, as established. Likely to be mostly highlights from the week, sprinkled in with any other pressing matters on my mind.
It’ll go something like this:
I started school this week. Two days in and it’s already kicking my butt. Joking, but, boy, has it taken a moment to get back into the swing of things. Like, what do you mean I have to actually do assignments for school? I can’t just go there to chill? Damn. Who allowed that?
I fear the Luna Divide is back and more polarized than ever. So much more polarized that I’ve begun calling it the Great Luna Divide. For the uninitiated, during my senior year of high school I suspected that people were going to start loving me or hating me more—no one was going to be in between. This was due to the fact that my power was growing… I was getting stranger by the second… My confidence was skyrocketing… I was getting way cooler or weird, depending on who you asked. (Some could argue it was both.) I called this phenomenon the Luna Divide because I am a creative who comes up with creative things. The split was minimal last year. Maybe because I was still getting used to college and not yet at my 100% annoyingness level. Or maybe because it’s college, and no one gives a shit. But, brother, do I feel it now! Thus, the greatness.
One thing about me is that I’m real. I remain true to myself for better and for worse. It just so happened to be the latter during my classes.
First class: Religious worldviews and ethical perspectives. All about Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Part of our introduction was sharing which one we were most excited to learn about and why. So what do I say? Well, I say I’m a lot like Shakespeare, of course.
“I’m a lot like Shakespeare in that I make up words. However—or I guess, and/but depending on your belief—I also accidentally plagiarize, so I’ll make up a word that already exists. For instance, sometimes instead of saying, ‘How confusing,’ or, ‘How curious,’ I’ll go, ‘How Confucius.’ But then I go, ‘Oh wait, that’s a guy.’ So I want to learn about Confucianism to understand what it is I’m saying.”
When will I learn to shut up? Just LIE. Say you heard about it in a TV show, but don’t know what it is, so you want to learn. You’re not PINOCCHIO, there is NO NEED to tell the truth! None of these people knew any of that; they wouldn’t even know you were lying. Just give them your social security while you’re at it, why don’t you? Tell them about the time you shat your pants when you had the stomach flu way back when. My god.
Second class: Literature from 1700s to 1800s. Too big of a class to do introductions. Thank fuck.
Third class: Philosophical Inquiry. I mention that I’m an English major that sucks at reading, but I like poetry. My professor asks who’s my favorite poet. I forget the guy’s name, so I say, “Uh… James Donne?”
My professor corrects me. “John Donne?”
“Yes, him.” The class laughs. “I was close!”
“I’m sure James Donne appreciates the attention.”
I’m not sure if the class was laughing with me or at me. Oh, well. Pretty sure half the class thinks I’m a complete idiot now, including my professor, but I’ll just have to prove them wrong. They’ll see. They’ll all see!
Fourth class: Language, Self, and Society. No complaints.
Besides making a fool out of myself, my classes seem pretty fine. For the most part, at least.
Okay, I think that’s enough for this week. I’m not sure how long each blog will be—I want them to be around the same length, but I’m not making any promises.
I hope you come back next week! And the week after that! Hopefully, this is the start of a beautiful one-way relationship. But it doesn’t have to be one-way! Leave comments! Reach out to me! The best way to contact me is by text (if that wasn’t obvious), but I’ll check Instagram every now and then until it’s gone for good.
I have no idea how to end this. Go Cubs. Go Bears.
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