Brienne writes

Watched  The Social Dilemma   and I have mixed feelings about it.  First, I agree with what they said.  AI is already all around us, the big tech companies are manipulating us, our behaviours and selling our attention to advertisers. We're what they need, we're an individual data point, civil wars can happen in ten or twenty years time and we'll be finished. But, I also think. We created these stuff. We're human, we're kind, loving, there are as many people who are as aware of what is going on and we're going to make it all okay at the end.  I don't know. What do you think?

Was doing something really boring, packing my last drawer. Many months of not clearing it out and looking at stuff in there got it packed full of junk. A little boredom and my fingers go to Facebook. I didn't delete it off my phone in case I ever get bored and want to catch up on my friends' lives. Yeah right. They know what's coming.  One video, and then another. It's 20 minutes on one. (Trigger warning: Abuse)  I'm hooked on videos of child abduction and abuse. ): Who wouldn't be? The cases are so disturbing I cannot fathom why anyone would do such a thing.  But Facebook knows and Facebook doesn't care. It keeps feeding me videos like that so I won't get off it.  You think you're consuming content.  N. O.  It's consuming you.  The algorithm sees what you cannot stop watching or reading and feeds you content after content of things like that. It doesn't care if it's nice animal videos or disgusting, horrifying ones. As long as it sees yo...

There is so many ads! 2 stories, 2 ads, 2 posts, 1 ad?! Our attention is what they're monetising.  What is becoming of society?  In public transport, I see 90% of people scrolling on their phones.  Tiktok. Instagram.  I think texting someone is still fine, isn't that what phones were for in the beginning? So easily I'm getting back into doom scrolling (if I don't stop myself). I'm noticing that based on my activity on there, (first day I stopped on a reel of these really cute twins I'm following) they feed me stuff I like watching.  An example: The same twins came up right when I open up Instagram today. You know what they're doing don't you? Get you sucked back in and trap you there so you're not thinking up plans to save the world. Silly ain't it.  But how many people notice their attention being hijacked? We voluntarily give our attention to these ads. I don't wanna lose what traction I've gained from the 2 times 30-day experiment. I...

Day 1 of going back on Instagram after a month off it. 2 toddlers, Harley and Harper saying "bonjour" greeted me. Clicked on stories and watched a friend posting she quit her job.  Watched another friend's story about finding out about her energetic fields.  Enough of Instagram. I hope I still feel the same about Instagram tomorrow. Will update this space. 

On 29th February, I mentioned wanting to do a 30-day experiment of not using social media. Here's what went down. 30 Jan, Day 1 - I open the Instagram app by habit about 7 times during the day. I am able to catch myself when I realise I have done that and I immediately log out. I'm logged into my less active account with little 'Following' so that may be what's helping me to not scroll and consume any content. I've replaced social media with reading books or listening to audiobooks on Libby while waiting or during my commute. During my free time, I'm making progress on courses I've signed up for.  1 Feb, Day 3 - By habit, my fingers scroll to the Instagram app on my phone screen but I stop before opening it. It is tough as I'm lacking sleep and have little willpower left nearing the end of the day. Before the experiment, I'd have allowed myself to scroll social media mindlessly. I have to remind myself I'm doing the experiment. Also, I'm ...

Today, I got to observe something interesting.  I went for a run, the first of the month. It was supposed to happen on Monday but it poured that day. And it was a long and tiring day.  The plan for the week was to work out thrice and I already missed the opportunity to complete one. Fast forward to today, I took a nap but woke up still tired. Weather was good so I was determined to do the run. I ran fast, I felt I had the momentum and the flow going, I pushed a little harder, finished faster but didn't reach the finish line that I set for myself. Still a win because I got it done. But my energy was drained. I came home, had dinner and thought I'd like to make progress on a course I'm studying. I open Youtube to search for the same topic because the modules in the course often take a while to load and I'll toggle between the two windows to learn while waiting.  Wrong move.  Bree with zero energy and willpower could not stop watching unrelated YouTube shorts. It was on...

Social media is meant to suck you in to no end.  I'm not saying it's no good I've learnt so much from TikTok and Instagram  but you're the consumer,  you're the data point,  you're the one that they need to keep on board.  I've been struggling with Instagram a lot lately it has really got me hooked.  I mean of course, I somehow chose to be hooked by following new accounts with the specific interests that I have (it's bouldering lately, and all my 'for you page' is filled with bouldering reels!!).  Am I the only one who's going through this?  I could be spending that time learning a new course, watching a podcast or reading a new book.  Instead, I'm scrolling through Instagram! Today, I got angry and I immediately went on Instagram to avoid my feelings. *inserts the shakes head emoticon  This has got to stop.  Which is why I'm going to be doing an experiment for the next 30 days. For the next 30 days, I'm only going to be using Ins...