Lessons From My Two-Month Social Network Detox

Turn Off ALL Your Notifications A Few Times A Week

That’s Kwanzaa Klauz..we had him at the top of our Kwanzaa Bush this holiday season….it was very peaceful, quiet and serene, largely because I cut myself off from the world.

I’m working on a new solo project called DRAGON, and I wanted as little distraction as possible during my creative process. So I went into hibernation just before Thanksgiving, and returned on Lunar New Year. Here’s what I learned…. keep in mind, most of these observations are aimed towards indie artists who lean on social media, but anybody might appreciate this.

1. Breaking News, You Really Don’t Need The Shit

As artists and entrepreneurs, we’re constantly pumped with the hype that we absolutely have to be on social networks to have a career. It’s almost like saying you need TV to keep up on news and pop culture. Life and career moves on and forward without Twitter & FB. You find out what you need to know through living PEOPLE who use TELEPHONES and actual VOCAL COMMUNICATION. After two months away, I come back to find I didn’t really miss a beat.

2. Ninety-Percent of What You Think Is Important Is Not:

All the content I was overloaded with before my detox was crucial for me to read and “stay in the know”, until I cut myself off and then I realized it’s mostly junk that clutters up the headspace….especially when trying to be creative. You don’t realize how much clarity you don’t have until you force it on yourself. You think it’s noisy…turn that up 1000 and that’s how noisy social networks ACTUALLY are.

3. People Don’t Have To Know Everything:

In the age where they say you have to keep your fanbase engaged by letting them know you’re clipping your nosehairs at Pinkberry, or stuck on the third line of your third verse, I call bullshit. Yes, you have to let people see your human side and glance into your artistic process….but control how big that window is…it still helps to keep a healthy mystique about your thoughts, whereabouts, process and opinions.

4. Social Networks by Definition Are Ego Inflators:

I don’t care how self-confident, humble and cautious you are, when you’re in Rome you have to play by the rules a little bit. And the rules all involve dangerous games of ego. Everyone is competing for real estate in your brain. Everyone is shouting to be heard and be special…this is tricky, because not everyone is sane, or has the best intentions….but now we all have the same platforms and opportunities to broadcast. Be careful what you consume and who you allow to consume your time.

5. Overstimulation = Desensitizing:

During my break, whenever I had to log in to FB or go on Twitter to handle unavoidable business, the stimuli was overwhelming….pictures, and bright backgrounds and opinions, and videos and links to music….advertisements everywhere…graphics, logos, instagrams and hipstamatics….it looked like a planet-sized carnival that’s open 24/7. It physically hurt my eyes to look at FB, no shit. The fact that my mind was blown by looking at it for 10 seconds let me know how desensitized my third eye had become to it all…that can’t be a good thing. Take a few days off at a time and keep your intuition in tact.

On that note, keep up on my movements via my FB Fanpage here….I promise I’ll keep it sensible….welcome to the Year of The Dragon:

SUM’S FB FANPAGE