23 Comments

Here's to more grasshoppers! And an easy recovery from oral surgery!

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Thanks! So far, so good on the surgery front.

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Love Love Love the “amused” Grasshopper.

Love Love Love your thoughts on Social Media.

Perhaps it is sometimes, unsocial media?!?

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It is very much unsocial media for me. I have "met" lovely people there, but for me those small perks don't outweigh how much it takes me away from, you know, living my life.

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'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. '

Albus Dumbledore

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We are so in sync - I deactivated Facebook & Twitter last week... And for a very similar reason. It just bores me more & more. I think this is generally a good sign! And oh that grasshopper!! 💚

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I'm in very good company, then. It is just so boring, isn't it? I think it's a bit of a cultural moment. And I'm really interested in why a lot of people suddenly feel bored by social media. I think it's a good signa and I wonder what comes next.

That grasshopper was pretty amazing. They're all over this time of year in southern Indiana. I go out to get into my car and they jump all over. But that particular grasshopper was there just for me.

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So with you on this, Robyn. I gave up Facebook in 2013 and haven't missed it in the least. I never went on Twitter and I'm very glad for that. I was having lunch with a friend recently who reads my MORE TO COME newsletter (he's part of a very small group of followers) and he said it reminds him of Emily Dickinson's "This is My Letter to the World" --- which, of course, we reminded each other has a second line of "which never wrote to me." That's about right. I like your comparison to a letter in a bottle. Just throw it out there and move on. And good luck with the oral surgery! DJB

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Oh, I might have to put that Emily Dickinson quote on my wall. It is a big part of the problem...expecting the world to write back. I feel lucky to know that there are quite a few people who read my newsletter here in town and never comment or like. They just tell me when I run into them in the coffee shop. So I tell myself even if I never know, there are people out there enjoying my words. There's a lot of faith involved.

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lol, welcome to the bright side! I deactivated Twitter a while back and don’t miss it. I haven’t engaged much with notes. I still post daily photos on insta and fb for my family members but I’ve started scheduling them so I only have to go out there once a day (or less). The biggest change I made was not picking up my phone in the morning, unless it’s absolutely necessary. I had gotten in a bad habit of playing the spelling bee on New York Times, and that would get me scrolling through other things. So now the only thing I look at in the morning is the weather, then I put my phone down and I do not look at it until I’m back from the lake or it’s at least 8 AM. ( I get up around 5:30). It does make a difference. I do notice when I want to scroll through things. If I don’t do it, I have to feel that discomfort, but then I end up doing something else, so it works out. I think it’s going to happen more and more. I do wonder what it means for writers sending out material if more and more people don’t engage that way.

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Awareness seems to be the key. Understanding why we have the urge to pick up our phones and then sitting with that moment. I do love the ritual of playing Connections on my phone first thing in the morning, but you're right, it's a struggle to put the phone down after that. Maybe I'll try your method and not let myself pick it up until later. I would love to fill my mornings with birds and fungi and butterflies and sunrises like you.

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Literally in bed having just done wordle and spelling bee. Your words ring so true.

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Lol. Wordle and Spelling Bee are too hard for me.

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Good for you! I'm starting to shift my relationship to social media as well. More living, less documenting :) Good luck!

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Exactly! Trying to get to the point where I see something cool or interesting or funny and just enjoy that moment, rather than thinking about how to turn it into something instantly consumable. Probably all our experiences are not meant to be easily consumable.

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This is so important. I’m old enough to remember pre social media when meals etc weren’t photographed for the socials. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice to see lovely images, but I feel that sometimes comes at the expense of living in the moment. The act of watching life for consumable content to post somehow taking away from the actual living of it.

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Exactly! I'm trying lately to create like an internal Instagram, a reel in my own head of the beautiful moments in my day or life that I can imagine and call up whenever I want, no internet or cell phone signal needed. Just my brain.

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Oct 17, 2023Liked by Robyn Ryle

Good for you. I left that site formerly known as Twitter just recently for all the reasons you discuss. I’ve tried a few of the “replacements” but didn’t stick with them for all the reasons you discuss. I’m still with IG because I enjoy sharing photos and videos of nature and the things I make (I’m a knitter and weaver). And I tend to follow the same so at least with IG, I can get a mood boost from seeing lovely flowers from someone’s garden or a thirsty hummingbird from another’s bird cam. It’s not exciting stuff, perhaps not even thrilling unless you find a 10-second video of two bumblebees fighting over a hummingbird feeder thrilling ... which I do. It sounds like you would too. And, as you note, less time on social media is more time for real engagement with the world. Love the grasshopper 🙂

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Yes to all the nature photos and videos. Do you subscribe to Karen Davis's Life in the Real World Substack? Gorgeous nature photography. https://karendavis.substack.com/

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SO RELATABLE. Yes.

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Thanks for reading!

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Robyn Ryle

cast more spells!

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Be careful what you wish for, Lisa! I might turn you into a cat. Would that be a bad thing?

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