Hello awesome human 👋

First of all, thank you for sticking with me. On top of being excited to have you on board, I'm absolutely stoked that in a digital age dominated by addictive mega-corp social media platforms, there's a contingent of us still in love with personal email.

I miss the way the web used to be. Not all of it, of course. I don't miss getting yelled at for inflating our phone bill with the dial-up modem. Or getting yelled at for cutting someone off just by picking up the receiver. Or getting yelled at for blowing our ISP's stingy monthly quota within the first week.

Maybe it's just the yelling I don't miss. Who can say?

But I definitely miss the optimism and curiosity. Everywhere you looked, there was creativity and something new to learn. And if you had the appetite for it, you could lose hours having fun and inadvertently enriching your mind in the process. Then somewhere along the way, "losing hours" meant scrolling some endless Facebook feed, wondering why you feel so damned tired all the time.

This is, of course, why I've deleted my social media profiles after months of gradually weaning off Big Social — to find that headspace where I can lose hours again, but feel accomplished instead of exhausted.
https://sanlive.com/desocial/

Friends who've taken social media breaks have said they feel fantastic afterwards. All of them. Not one has regretted going on sabbatical. But then, I wonder, what keeps them coming back?

That's not a rhetorical question. I really want to know.

Hit reply and tell me: Why do you use social media? What do you love about it? And what annoys you about it? And if you could put your finger on it, what is THE ONE THING that keeps you on your platform of choice?

Stay safe,
Sandy.
sanlive.com

🤔

Hey, fellow web nerds: There's a version of Markdown specifically for writing recipes. It's called Cooklang.
https://www.mathew-paul.nz/posts/adding-cooklang-to-my-blog/

Interesting sustainability facts: Tech has now outpaced fast fashion in waste production. Back Market's snappy preso will tell you more.
https://invisibletech.backmarket.com/

Obligatory cat gif: This cat is not pleased about the state of e-waste.
https://media.giphy.com/media/VbnUQpnihPSIgIXuZv/giphy.gif