Hear me out

The thing most on my mind for the last 2 months.

Because, It’s the end of the world as we know it.

(and I feel fine)

… We have this fucking bizarre relationship with the word “engagement” in the English language. The connotation is almost exclusively positive, which is sort of a danger zone because there’s virtually always negative aspects to anything. You’re encouraged to be engaged with your surroundings, your friends, your job, your coworkers, your family. Hell, even when you find that person, whether it’s a potential husband or wife, what do we call it? You’re engaged. So, really, the term doesn’t get more fundamental than that.

But language is a funny thing—it’s like a bit of a mindfuck. So, when you have a word like that which connotes a situation or set of actions you’re taking, your attitude, or whatever, it tends to remove any kind of filters where you might say, “Well, wait a minute…”

And of course, the biggest aspect of this bullshit is everyone’s engagement with two primary things: social media and the legacy media sources, or even now the alternative media. Everyone is spending all their goddamn time with their face buried in their phone, watching social media, or watching longform podcasts, or just getting sucked into the soundbite, shout-down culture that’s more of a feature of the dying legacy media on both broadcast and cable.

I’m just of the mind that something’s gotta give. I remember saying way back in early 2020, when COVID began, that it could’ve never happened but for smartphones and the ability of a global whatever to scare the shit out of almost everybody on the planet in a 24-hour cycle. So, it doesn’t really matter whether those who are behind it are doing it for monetary gain, power gain, influence, or just for shits and giggles. What it comes down to is, have you perhaps stopped and thought about what happens if you disengage?

Yeah, what happens if you just say, “Fuck it,” and unplug from this incessant cycle of engagement? It’s not about being anti-social; it’s about protecting your mental space from becoming a breeding ground for every piece of panic-inducing, manipulative bullshit that’s thrown your way. Sometimes, disengaging is the most engaged thing you can do for your own sanity.

Here’s the crazy thing I’ve done to test this over the last few weeks.

I deleted all my emails. I mean all, some going back in saved folders 10 and 20 years. Total reset.

Here’s what happened.