‘when it is possible for you to retreat into yourself whenever you please; for nowhere can one retreat into greater peace or freedom from care than within one’s own soul, especially when a person has such things within him that he merely has to look at them to recover from that moment perfect ease of mind.’ - Marcus Aurelius - Meditation IV.3
Hello comrades. About a year ago (ish), my Fiancée and I started a challenge of removing ourselves from mainstream social media, and began to avoid the bigger news channels, click-baiting articles, and outlets.
In general the rule was: anything that wasn’t directly pertaining to our daily lives we should not ignore completely, but avoid. *Email and professional tools were not part of this cycle.
Even this newsletter has been reduced in terms of mail outs. Nothing to excess and all that, according to the inscription at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
We’ve been a little bit Epicurean in this approach - withdrawing from public life, and political chat in the modern sense. This was a sizeable challenge for the first few months, being millennials at the heart of the social media age, and being involved in digital industries, particularly music - there we hurdles to overcome.
The idea of missing out on certain events or moments pertaining to your friends, family, or favourite channels is not for everyone, or not hearing breaking news as it happens is essential for some. However, I have to say the positives over the course of a year have been worth the discipline.
I can’t believe it’s been a year in fact. As I feel we’ve used our time slightly better to accomplish a few important goals we had in mind.
The key takeaway’s have been:
Focusing in on what we can control, and influence in our day to day living
Made deeper connections with real humans in the real world
Feeling in touch with reality and how the world actually works
Increased our sense of self-discipline, and embraced downtime, even boredom.
Not being slaves to our devices and technology, even though we still enjoy them
Giving time or resources to more local causes or local people
Impulse control and self-awareness: ie. not sharing every accolade, story or achievement online
Most of these fall in line with the tenets of Stoicism, and the Eastern Philosophies of Life, which I’m clearly influenced by.
Balance is key.
On the flip side - I will admit, it’s been quite difficult being in a lifestyle where international connections are made over social media, and these communication tools can be crucial.
Our digital social circle has inevitably become smaller, although we would favour this instead of a constant barrage of noise, and notifications.
It’s not about going offline completely, or becoming a hermit, like some of the exiled/settled Philosophers we often read about. After all I’m emailing you now.
It was a challenge to see if our sense of purpose and vigour for life would increase, understanding ourselves a little better.
At some point we may rejoin the land of social media and engage with the modern media, but for now we choose to remain where we’re at, and explore this choice further.
Book Recs:
I’ve been reading a-lot of the Penguin Books - Great Ideas Series recently. They don’t break the bank, and are laced with easy to understand ideas about each concept in question, without being bogged down with heavy academic influence.
There are many topics, but these are my favourite three for learning how to live well:
How to Be A Stoic
Nature - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Three Japanese Buddhist Monks
Good fortune to you all.
Memento mori,
Enda