I have been off Instagram and Threads for roughly three weeks now. In this time, I have finished a few books, barely picked up my phone, regained some attention span, and made friends with a spider. 

Upon finding out that female spiders build more prominent webs, Declan has named our spider “Scarlett.” Like a never ending abyss, I love him more deeply for that. Scarlett is an Orb Weaver living just outside our kitchen window. 

I’m currently reading my first hardcover book in some time. (Kindle is convenient when you’re nursing and parenting.) I picked up Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “We Were Eight Years in Power” and have been stuck in thought since. This man is a genius. His writing makes you read slowly because you know every word carries depth. Coates has a way of framing the world in tenderness and seriousness. I have to take breaks between long pages to digest. Plus, he loves an Oxford comma. Bless him.

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Back to social media to round this out.

I deleted the apps in the moment of anguish. I felt so trapped. I wasn’t thinking my own thoughts. I wasn’t registering the outside world. It was doing as it has always intended to do — draw me away from real-life and trap me in the algorithm. I was trapped feeling like Ron Burgundy in the phone booth. A true glass case of emotions.

And — and— the Lindsay Clancy case. Shit, man. I’ll write on that soon enough, with many trigger warnings. But if you’re reading this, and you did keep up on the case, what are your thoughts? Any and all thoughts are welcome. I know the case was triggering for so many of us – in a myriad of ways.

In the meantime, may we all hug our brains, take breaks — indoor, outdoor — together.