Matt Haig

Or why

Thinking of writing another book like this. Just short chapters of courage.

Because whatever this is, it doesn’t feel social. I want to come online and meaningfully follow and engage with people I like. I can still do that to a degree but it is becoming harder. Instead I get bombarded with video content from people I don’t follow at all. Just stuff designed to distract you in the moment and I try my best never to click on it because I know if I do I am telling the algorithm to give me more of it but it is an ADHD nightmare. And even if I don’t click on it I get more of it. I genuinely feel people want more than meaningless diminishing dopamine spikes. They want togetherness and connection. That was the promise of MySpace and Early Facebook and Primeval Instagram and now we have whatever bastardised atomised TikTokised externalised ADHD nightmare this is. Meta doesn’t want us together. It doesn’t want us essentially unionised. Mark Zuckerberg and other tech bros have said they want social media to move away from the town square model. Of course they do. Because town squares were where revolutions used to happen. Town squares were where rogue kings lost their heads. Capitalism is anti community. Even online ones it seems. Bring back that feeling of a community of familiar strangers. And not just forever skimming and never diving.

The gaslighting doesn’t work anymore. Now is a time for linguistic accuracy.

Five years sober. Twenty five years drug free. Life is better. Experience is better. Hot chocolate is better.