I was going to take three months offline, but I quit after two.
The first six weeks were fine — good, even! I barely noticed the lack of Twitter (RIP), Instagram, and TikTok in my life. It was nice to fill my empty time with things other than scrolling. I read a whole book on the redeye from Los Angeles.
I take these social media breaks a few times a year but usually only for a week, maybe two. I like that they “lower the volume,” so to say, on everything that isn’t Real Life. Knowledge may be power but ignorance is bliss and what kind of sick freak would choose power over bliss?
Talking with Madeline Kunkle of Hollywood Gifts for Interview last year made me want to experiment with an extended hiatus. I had to cut a lot out of our chat to make the article legible, but we talked at length about the value (and hesitation) of taking a longer pause from social media.
I satiated my urge to scroll with placebos like Apple News, Vogue Runway, and the Substack app (which is actually pretty good). But after a month and a half, mid-June, I began to yearn for a hard stuff. I wondered how this one influencer’s sick mom was doing and how another influencer’s Brooklyn townhouse renovation was going. I wondered what kind of depraved topics Twitter had latched on to and how graduation went for Alix Earle (lol…. but actually…..).
Mostly, I missed those people just outside my inner orbit, the friends I don’t talk to every week but who I might have a little DM convo with around something random. Much like when I famously left Facebook in 2010 (I thought it was over!), the freedom of disconnection didn’t outweigh the social ties of being online. And when the calendar hit June 30, it dawned on me that I could call it early. Two months was a fine amount of time to disappear.
Before my experiment, I was feeling an uncharacteristic amount of FOMO and generally not feeling “into” my life. Moving back to NYC has helped that, for sure, but so did the break from social media. I feel more like myself and more certain about what I’m into and what I’ve outgrown.
Maybe I’ll write more about this again but for today that’s it. On to stuff others might enjoy :)
𝓢𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓵𝔂,
Nicola
New York City Ballet ‘Express Intermission Service’ form
Tiffany sent me this oral history of Buzzfeed News (also RIP) and there was a banner ad for Swan Lake, performed by the New York City Ballet, which I swiftly bought tickets for. They sent a LOT of e-mails before the performance, including one with a PDF of the ‘Express Intermission Service’ form. We neglected to get there on time to fill out the form and wound up chugging glasses of House Champagne due to the discrepancy between the length of the bar line and the duration of the intermission. The ballet thought this through in advance and gave us the opportunity to save ourselves from ourselves, which we will do next time.
Blogging in the wild
There’s a new wifi cafe in my life and it has real wifi cafe energy. There are battered, mismatched couches and one of the wobbly wood tables has a throne for a chair. They host comedy shows and tarot readings and were rated one of NYC’s coziest coffee shops 2018 (though it’s unclear by who). It’s full of college students doing homework and LES locals stopping in with medium sized dogs to get a Milk Bone and a coffee.
Anyway, I spotted this in the bathroom. I really like the idea of writing a timely listicle with marker on a wall. Not that I would ever deface a small business. But if you have the impulse, write us a little blog.
The bathroom has since been repainted dark red and Top tracks at the moment: has been lost but not forgotten.
Poketo ‘Dome’ wallet
I am a small purse evangelist but none of my wallets fit in my little bags. I included this Poketo wallet on a gift guide I wrote for work before realizing it’s just was what I, Nicola, had been searching for. It fits cards and cash and is palm sized. The bright red makes it easy to find in my bag. Love her <3
Palm Trees and Power Lines
The name of this movie sounds like an early 2000s pop punk band from Florida. But it’s an age gap discourse-core indie (??) movie with almost no music and decade-agnostic production and costume design that really did it for me. I think it came out this spring; you can watch it on Amazon. It’s stressful but good.
Glen Ivy Hot Springs
Imagine an amusement park for adults but instead of rides there are all kinds of pools. Mineral-rich spring water hot tubs, cold plunge pools, lounge pools, epsom salt pools. There are no children, everyone is in their swimsuits, and all of the cocktails are made with a wine-based liquor. Bachelorette parties everywhere. If I went back — and I do hope to return — I’d gone on a weekday instead of a weekend.