I’m in day five of being logged out of Twitter and Facebook. Social media has been a kind of anchor in my life, long before the idea of “social media” really existed. I’ve now been involved in social circles maintained on the Internet more than half of my life, and to be honest, sometimes it feels like time lost. There’s grief attached to it, at the time lost due to inattention to other things that were more fulfilling (like art), and then anger at the industrial psychology that has so adeptly manipulated so may of us to doomscroll through our insomnia.
Outside of the rage machine, I try to focus on my work, both paying and house, but now my attention and anxiety drifts to other places. Lately I’ve soothed some of that with music, though some of it ended up taking me down bittersweet memory roads.
This weekend’s playlist, so far:
Metallica – Metallica (The Black Album)
Metallica – Ride the Lightning
Iron Head Jane 
I am a reporter for USA TODAY and saw your blog post about the fake aurora borealis that led me to the Russian forum where the original pix were shown. I am on a fact-checking team debunking that original photo and wanted to ask you a couple of questions about how you tracked down the original and whether you happened to contact the Russian photographer. My email is dstanglin@usatoday and phone is 202-494-0884 if you have a few moments to enlighten me! (For some reason I can’t find your post that started all this)