Morning Musing on the effects of turning it all off
Luvlies, Good morning. Welcome back to the blog! Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Mine was just right. There was painting, reading, napping, mini dance parties and zero social media was consumed. I also boldly turned my phone off after a very disturbing conversation with a relative, which left me feeling unsettled. The laundry was left for another day (well, today actually), and we all survived.
When I have these types of weekends, my mood instantly changes. Lately I’ve been feeling ‘influenced’ and the way I’m responding is disconnected from my true self. Anti-blackness sends me into instant a rage (as it should). I have never participated in the diaspora wars, because they never existed before Tiktok. But all of a sudden I’m arguing in the comments defending Black Americans and their culture against other members of the diaspora more than ever. I used to enjoy family content that focused on parenting styles rather than the children; now I’m repulsed by the adults schilling their small kids online for money, and troll them accordingly or just actively block them.
On Saturday, I came to the realization that I’m getting what I’m paying for.
Laney Luv, June 2026
Free content is now rage bait content. Free content has an ad inserted every 120 secs to break our attention spans.
*slightly adjusts tin foil hat*.
Hear me out – I’ve been a UX specialist for years and in each company I worked for, the goal was to have users engaged on whatever platform/ app they were using, for as long as possible. Eyeballs converted to real $$$, and my job was to create funnels with the least amount of friction to make that happen.
Each company started out with wholesome intentions, but that approach wasn’t selling enough inventory. You know what does sell products? Anger, frustration, envy and all those other 60-90sec negative emotions we experience. Add the speed of digital tech and you have a recipe for disaster.
Digital Resistance is a real movement. It’s not futile. It’s okay to consume content slowly. It’s okay to use tech in the assistive way it was intended. We lean into the resistance for a healthy existence.
Some old-timey, analog-ish behaviours I’ve never abandoned and have been using more than ever:
- buying albums and paying for most music I listen to (recent purchases for the month in image below)
- finding more and more Patreon accounts to follow and support because I feel empowered when I do.
- reading design blogs again (the design files is a good one)
- subscribing and reading magazines through Libby *
- buying small production runs of books from author directly
- watching movies on kanopy or in the actual independent theatre.*
** these platforms are free if you have a library card
The lists/guides I’ve created recently and links in this post aren’t affiliated, but use them as a reminder that you – the viewer/consumer – have wonderful options. Options in the way you want to utilize technology to add to your life.
…and that’s time. Still here? Leave your thoughts down below.
See you tomorrow Luvlies!
xoxo Luv Laney Luv
*psst… Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my youtube channel and Patreon.
Morning Musing is a pomodoro-timed, free thought experiment to get back into the swing of things. No Ai added.
