I dumped Twitter when it started stinking of Musk, no huge loss. I’ve had beef with Instagram for forcing me to consume reels I don’t ask for, then Meta and Canada got into a beef about news sharing, and in general I’ve just been tired of the overwhelming onslaught of content I don’t care about and the dearth of stuff I can be bothered to like.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I created a new email address for the sole purpose of managing my activity around the new Substack I created. As the clickbait says, what happened next will blow your mind!
What happened next is this. I had a fresh new inbox. The only stuff coming into it were emails related to my new newsletter and emails from the few writers whose Substacks I had decided to follow. No promotional emails, no suggested posts. Quality content only.
You know how folks are getting turned on by analog-looking typewriter-ish word processors sans bells and whistles? You know how simple flip phones are making a comeback? I think it’s time to get back to our digital roots by creating old-school recreational email accounts.
Rather than turning on your Facebook newsfeed and subjecting yourself to all the content you don’t want, just make yourself a new email address and start subscribing to the things you want to see.
Remember your first Hotmail account? You didn’t have social media to curate your identity, so your carefully crafted email address had to do all the heavy lifting. Give yourself the gift of making a 21st century version of “slapdash69” or whatever cheeky handle you want. Then search out the creators you like and start subscribing. And because it’s a fresh, new inbox, you won’t have to sift through a hot mess promotional flotsam.
Do it and let me know how it works out. To get started, subscribe to my new Substack 😉
Lynette Adams 