A New Year's revelation
Turns out, the social media scroll hole really is bottomless...
Happy New Year! Thank you so much for being here and helping to keep The Flock going. I appreciate you, and am very much looking forward to chatting with you in 2024.
Have you ever felt completely and utterly out of the loop?
I'm not talking about having missed some gossip, a must-watch TV show or, god forbid, Saltburn. I mean, really and truly off-grid, with no idea what's happening with the world.
In my 20 years in journalism (Lord, what a terrifying thought) I don’t think I’ve ever been well and truly out of the loop, even if I did do my first newspaper role without internet access (another terrifying thought). Instead, I’ve spent pretty much my whole adulthood being hyperconnected to current affairs and, tangentially as a result, to many, many people. That is, until December 16th, when I went off radar almost entirely for the first time.
It started when, in a discussion about work/life balance, Rich semi-jokingly, but not really jokingly at all, told me there were times over the last year when he felt he was married to a phone. He’s always been hugely supportive of my career, and still is. But he’d noticed correctly that, increasingly, I’d pick up my phone to read a work email or WhatsApp, and then keep staring at it long past the point of usefulness, scrolling aimlessly on Instagram when I should have been watching a movie or engaging with my family. I hated that he was right. But he was right.