I’ve made a choice to refrain from using social media to promote my work. This probably sets a pretty low ceiling on how many people I’m able to reach, but I think I’m okay with connecting with fewer people more deeply.

Before I say anything else, don’t perceive for even a moment that I’m advocating this is the only right choice. I have huge respect for lots of wonderful people who use these mediums constructively and creatively and redemptively. They do things I don’t have the wisdom or the courage or the stamina to do. They should keep doing that. I think we need them to. And yes, full disclosure, I play in a band that uses social media accounts. That’s okay. I think we have the opportunity to walk that path faithfully together.

But for this, for just me, I’m choosing to do it a little differently.

Let’s get real. It’s not like social media effectively serves its alleged purpose. It’s common knowledge that Instagram doesn’t show your posts to all your followers, not even most of them. That’s because Instagram doesn’t care about your song, or your show, or your photography, or your book, or your short film, or your coffee, or your tacos, or your handmade leather goods, or your personal training, or your landscaping company, or anything about you. Instagram only cares about making Instagram more money, and it does that by showing us everything other than what is actually necessary in order to keep us on the platform and distracted from our lives longer, so we can buy more things someone else has decided we can’t live without.

So I’m just going to refuse to use a tool that everyone tells me is really important, but that we also openly acknowledge doesn’t work well for most of us.

I won’t show you what’s in my bag.

I won’t invite you to get ready with me in the morning.

I won’t walk you through how I make my smoothie.

I won’t give you one more reason to go scrolling through the abyss.

It’s not because I’m an ultra-privacy-conservative libertarian (though that I do think that stuff is deeply important).

It’s just that I think you and I both have better things to do.

I’m weary of hearing everyone, especially well-known individuals with large platforms, talking about how terrible social media is, and then make no effort toward substantive change. That’s silly. We all just keep posing and posting and compliantly feeding the monster that sells our information and plunders our souls.

I’m tired of looking at it. I’m tired of talking about it. I’m just bored of it. So I’m not going to do it.

I know I’m going to get fussed at by dear friends and colleagues for this. They will ask whether or not I actually want to succeed. They will point out all of the valuable things I’m saying “no” to. And they will be absolutely correct. It will be harder for people to find me. It might be years before a venue will agree to book me for a show because I don’t have follower counts.

But this is how I want to do things for now.

I’m going to make music with my friends. I’m going to look for recording work in my hometown. I’m going to run a Patreon page. I’m going to play shows. I’m going to sell merchandise that my wife designs. I’m going to pay Squarespace a subscription to run this website. Yes, you’ll have to go out of your way and put my domain in your browser to find out if I’m doing anything or not. But you’ll only see exactly what you came looking for, and you won’t stay any longer than you intended, and you won’t be participating in a mass scale behavior modification experiment, courtesy of the Bros of Silicon Valley.

Here’s to living in the real world. Close this tab. Go outside. Eat some ice cream. Call a friend, or your mom, or your dad, or your grown child. Grind your coffee beans by hand. Pet a friendly dog or cat. Stand in line in public without holding your phone. Listen to an album in a single sitting. Do something slowly and single-mindedly.

I’ll see you around.