Low Power Mode
Have you ever just felt...
"disconnected" from certain things? That's where I'm at right now.
Maybe it's because I've been super busy at my real job, or maybe it's because I
haven't been able to ride as much lately, but whatever it is, it's got me
feeling like a cell phone with a low battery. I'm in low-power mode and I'm
sending less energy to certain things that seem to drain my battery the most.
Things like social media. In diverting energy away from things that seem to
suck away time and positivity, my daily life has felt more enriched. I know it
might sound like I'm about to start preaching about the evils of Facegram,
Instabook, SnapApp and Whatschat (names mixed on purpose), and maybe I am a
little... but the truth is, how much better were we as a society before these
things first launched?
***RANT ALERT***RANT ALERT*** RANT IN
3...2...1...
My facebook feed is full
of ads, pissy comments from keyboard warriors, fake virtue signaling from
self-righteous people and guilt-driven modern day chain letters. GEEEEEZUS. How
did a platform with such great potential to keep friends and family connected,
turn into a giant pot full of shit and shit-stirrers? And what about Instagram?
That feed is full of short videos of people trying to sell themselves as the next
up and coming "influencers" by dancing, shaking their asses and...
get this... lip-syncing to everything from gangster rap to movie lines.
Lip-syncing for crying out loud! Back in the late '80's, Milli-Vanilli got BASHED for lip-syncing,
but now people are literally becoming famous for it.
Good grief.
Snapchat seems to be the main source of infidelity and fake face filters that are circulating everywhere (for the love of all that is good and right, why does everyone have cartoon puppy faces these days?) and don't get me started on the ole stand-by video source of YouTube... you can't watch a 3 minute video without having to sit through a minute worth of ads! Not to mention, it seems like somebody took the "sex sells" mantra and applied it to every video that is uploaded. They add click bait teasers to the intros and the content usually sucks. I don't mean to generalize... there are some great content creators out there, but it's getting increasingly difficult to find their stuff among the piles and piles of digitally uploaded garbage. And for shit sake... can someone please create a video, post a TikTok, upload a picture to Instagram or make a Facebook post WITHOUT trying to get my money?!? For f*@k sake... every time I turn around, somebody is after my last damn dollar! Subscriptions, promotions, ads, click bait, buy now, special offer, rebates, blah...blah...blah. Give me a break!
***RANT OVER***(maybe)
The Bag is FULL
My dad used to tell me, "you can't fit ten
pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag" and, I'll be honest, I used to wonder why
anyone was putting shit in a bag, but as I got older, I realized that he meant
"stuff" but it's just more fun to use profanity. I'm pretty sure I've
reached a point where my bag is full, but ironically, the bag has been
getting filled with shit instead of the good stuff. I'm
tired of all the garbage out there and I'm sick of trying to sort through it
all. I've realized that my mental health has improved, my energy levels have
increased, my attitude is better and my general outlook feels more positive,
just by taking a break from it all.
Look, I'm not telling you how to spend your time
and I'm not trying to convince you that you shouldn't "do" the
whole social media thing. You might just be the next person to launch some incredible career or
become the next multi-millionaire by posting some cool video, taking some
amazing photo or posting some amazingly insightful knowledge that could change
the world... but for me, I'm thinking that, for where I am in my life right
now, maybe less is more. Maybe less bullshit distractions might mean I'll have
more time to enjoy the good distractions. Maybe by having a
lot less negativity coming at me all of the time, might give me more room to
grow and put more positive vibes out into the world around me. Maybe by not
being tempted to buy a bunch of shit that I don't need, or never even knew that
I wanted, might give me more money to save up for the things that really
matter- family vacations, retirement, home improvements or maybe even another
motorcycle ;-).
Either way... you will probably be seeing a lot
less of me on the socials... and I might even end up shutting them down
altogether.
The Blog
As for the MotoWriter blog, well, it'll still be
here. This is a place that I do enjoy. It's a non-intrusive
little platform where I can put out some insight and positivity, and it's
something that I really do enjoy, so this little corner of the interwebs is
safe for the foreseeable future. Honestly, I never thought this blog would have
the reach that it's had... it's had somewhere over 23 thousand visits (as of this
posting date) since it first went live just over a year and a half ago. Visitors
from, literally, all over the world have stopped in and read my simple words
and I appreciate that more than you know. The fact that you all have taken a
few minutes of your precious time to sit down and read my words is truly
humbling and I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to think that maybe,
juuuusssst maybe, I might have said something to inspire someone to do
something cool, or to make their lives, or the outlook on their situation, a
little better.
I don't want your money, I don't want to
distract you and I don't want to fill your bags with shit. So,
if you see my socials fade away, you'll know why... but you'll still be able to
find me right here at www.theMotoWriter.com.
Fill your bags with positivity, happy memories,
life experiences and lessons learned.
Ride safe and make good choices, y'all.
JD, aka The MotoWriter
