Yesterday, I tried staying off social media and just read a book, watched a bit of MasterClass, and listened to music. It was a quieter day in my mind.

Normally, I would be scrolling through Mastodon or Instagram. I'd have a different emotional reaction every few seconds, from delight to disgust and everything in between. It's tiring, and I've been noticing the impact in my day-to-day life.

You may well be one to enjoy the occasional doomscroll, and I'm not judging you for it, or suggesting I'm better because I read a book. That's not what this post is about.

The point is that attention is a precious and highly valuable currency. It's called "The Attention Economy" after all. I'm suggesting that you be aware of how you're spending your attention, and what you're getting in return.

I know there's a cost to having my thoughts and emotions going along with these videos, or toots. To free myself from those costs, my awareness returns to my immediate surroundings. I start thinking about and putting energy into The Real World.

The downside is that I feel a disconnect from the rest of the world. There's a lot upsetting about the planet right now - genocide, ecocide, fascism, death, suffering, destruction. But right here, right now, it's a quiet Sunday and a perfect day for building a snowman with my son. We have a baby on the way, and family coming to visit, and Christmas coming up quickly. It's a lovely time in our lives.

So to add in stress and tragedy and worry and sadness, it doesn't feel right. My son doesn't need all of that energy coming into our home. There's absolutely nothing I can do about the world's problems.

Maybe I can write a Letter To The Editor, or to my member of parliament, about my feelings in regards to a war (or whatever). It's not going to make much of a dent.

Ok, maybe I can organise or join a protest. But then I have to be deliberate about my time and energy. But hey, an hour at a protest is surely more useful than an hour reading articles or watching the news.

If I just want to understand a geopolitical situation, I'm better off reading books about history. Chances are, I'm not actually that interested. I just feel emotionally drawn to look at videos of cities being destroyed, to feel my heart fill with outrage and sadness for these orphaned children.

There's a lot of news every day, but rarely is it of any significance. It's usually something mundane, and almost never about something important like the end of a war. And even when there is big international news, nothing changes for me. It's still a quiet Sunday perfect for building a snowman.

Most online content isn't at all relevant to me. It's outrage about one thing or another, politics from a country I don't live in, or something personal that happened to someone else, or cat videos. No disrespect to cat videos. Everyone loves cat videos. But they're forgettable. And when you spend hours consuming forgettable media, your life becomes forgettable.

There can be some discomfort in stopping - withdrawal symptoms - as my body craves the dopamine, adrenaline, ups and downs of this sort of content. To stop feels like boredom. But that's just it. Boredom is a returning to the mundane, the every day predictability of the here and now. This boredom is an energy in itself, a potentiality, a seeking that can be focused on the tangible instead of the ephemeral. I can go do the dishes while listening to music instead of scrolling. Or read a book. I can choose what to do with my attention instead of suckling at the teat of The Algorithm. I can write, or do my taxes, or go for a walk. Or build a snowman.