Greetings my lovely feral, dark, and bright ones,

I think those of us who have been parked in front of a glowing screen for some time eventually reach a moment where we have to stop and evaluate our lives online and offline.

I have been online since 1996 with WebTV. Yes, I just dated myself, and no, I do not care!

Back then, it was all about wrestling with HTML codes, embedding MIDI background music that scared the crap out of anyone clicking your page, and making websites on GeoCities, AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy, Tripod, Angelfire, and EarthLink (just to name a few).

I was a true techie back then, and I still am.

I remember ICQ, Friendster (2002), MySpace (2003), Facebook (2007), Twitter before it got ruined by Elon, FUBAR, hi5, MyYearbook, and so on.

I think I was on pretty much all of them.

I really loved WebTV, MySpace, Yahoo 360°, Yahoo Groups, and AOL Groups.

Looking back at where we started versus the absolute circus that we are swimming in now is wild.

To give you an idea of the sheer volume of digital history we’ve lived through since I first logged on in 1996, let’s take a little walk down memory lane:

• CompuServe (1969 / Peak 1980s–1990s): The granddaddy consumer provider. Famous for introducing GIFs, specialized forums, and early email.
• Prodigy (1984 / Launched 1988): A graphical dial-up interface offering news, shopping, games, and message boards before the Web went mainstream.
• America Online / AOL (1985 / Rebranded 1991): Ubiquitous CD-ROM mailers taking over your mailbox, custom dial-up software, chat rooms, instant messaging, and that classic “You’ve got mail!” greeting.
• Tripod (1992 / Web Host 1995): Started for college students, quickly became one of the biggest free web-hosting and site-building hubs of the ’90s.
• EarthLink (1994) & GeoCities (1994): EarthLink got us connected, while GeoCities gave us thematic “neighborhoods” to build custom HTML pages complete with animated hit counters and Under Construction GIFs.
• Angelfire (1996): Free server space for making custom websites from scratch with raw HTML and CSS.
• WebTV (1996): My entry point! The set-top box and wireless keyboard that let us browse the web and send emails right on the television set over dial-up.
• ICQ (1996): The first standalone instant messenger, complete with unique UIN numbers, status indicators, and the iconic “Uh-oh!” alert sound.
• Yahoo! Groups (1998 / Officially 2001): Born from eGroups, the premier hub for niche online mailing lists, forums, and photo sharing.
• Friendster (2002): The prototype for modern social networks, introducing circle-of-friends networking and profile photos.
• MySpace (2003): The absolute peak era of profile customization—raw HTML/CSS, embedded music players, custom layouts, and the friendship-destroying Top 8.
• hi5 (2003) & MyYearbook (2005): Massive networks for customizing profiles, virtual gifting, playing social games, and meeting peers.
• Facebook (2004 / Opened to Public 2006): From college-only directory to global social giant.
• FUBAR (2005) & Yahoo! 360° (2005): FUBAR was the online virtual bar for sending virtual drinks and hanging out; Yahoo! 360° tied blogging, photos, and group updates together.
• Twitter / X (2006): Microblogging at its finest back when it was just 140 characters and real-time updates before it lost its soul.

And let’s not forget the entire era of Instant Messaging networks that dictated our lives back then!

Before text messages and DMs ruined our peace, our whole social universe lived inside these desktop IM clients:

• ICQ (1996): The original standalone messenger with multi-digit UIN numbers.
• AOL Instant Messenger / AIM (1997): The undeniable king of late-90s/2000s IM culture. Away messages with passive-aggressive song lyrics, custom buddy icons, warning points, and the door-opening/closing chime sounds.
• MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger (1999): Famous for custom emoticons, “Nudges” that violently shook the whole chat window, and letting your contacts see what song you were playing in Windows Media Player.
• Yahoo! Messenger (1998 / Originally Yahoo! Pager): Packed with animated “Audibles,” webcam video chat, custom status messages, and integrated chat rooms.
• IRC (Internet Relay Chat) & mIRC (1988 / 1995): The original text-based chat network for techies and specialized channels where you joined with a nick and learned command lines.
• Trillian & Pidgin (2000 / 2001): Multi-protocol apps that let us sign into AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger all in one single buddy list so our computers didn’t explode from running four apps at once.
• Skype (2003): The platform that eventually killed traditional IMs by bringing free internet voice calls and webcams to everyone.

And then there is the mountain of email accounts we’ve juggled over thirty years.

Every era came with its own go-to email provider, and most of us ended up with an ungodly number of abandoned inboxes, spam-filled addresses, and custom domains:

• AOL Mail & Netscape Webmail (1990s): The classic @aol.com address tied to dial-up screen names. You’ve Got Mail
• Hotmail (1996): Launched as one of the world’s first free webmail services before Microsoft bought it and cycled through a dozen rebrands.
• Yahoo! Mail (1997): The default email box for millions, back when having a 2MB storage limit felt like a massive luxury. Yahooooooooo!!
• Gmail (2004): Google launched it on April Fools’ Day as an invite-only service offering a mind-blowing 1GB of storage.
• iCloud / MobileMe / .Mac / Mail.com (2000s): Apple’s evolving email suffixes (@mac.com, @me.com, @icloud.com) alongside independent providers like Mail.com, Lycos, and Excite.
• Privacy-Focused & Modern Webmail: Fastmail, ProtonMail, Tuta (Tutanota), Zoho Mail, and custom domain webmail hosts where we try to escape corporate trackers.

I didn’t have a lot of friends at all, honestly I still don’t, I was just happy to meet people.

We played games like Farmville, FarmTown, and a few others that were friendly and peaceful to do.

Remember when social media games were actually fun?

Back then, games were low-stress and brought people together without demanding your credit card or five hours of grinding a day:

• FarmVille (2009): The quintessential Facebook game. Plowing plots, planting crops, harvesting before they withered, and spamming friends’ walls asking for neighbor invites and spare wooden planks.
• FarmTown (2009): The earlier, super cozy farming alternative where you could actually hire real friends to work on your farm at the marketplace and chat while harvesting.
• Mafia Wars (2008): Zynga’s text-and-click addiction where you built a crime family by recruiting real Facebook friends into your mob.
• Café World (2009): Serving up virtual dishes, decorating your diner, hiring friends as waiters, and trying not to let the food burn on the stove.
• Pet Society (2008): Customizing cute virtual pets, decorating their multi-room houses, dressing them up, and visiting your friends’ pets to give them baths and play ball.
• YoVille (2008): A full virtual world on Facebook where you owned apartments, bought furniture, worked at the factory, and hung out in public rooms chatting.
• Restaurant City (2009): Playfish’s hit where you traded ingredients with friends, leveled up recipes, and ran a bustling restaurant layout.
• Bejeweled Blitz & Candy Crush Saga (2009 / 2012): Sending extra lives back and forth and competing on weekly friend leaderboards for top score bragging rights.
• Sorority Life & FishVille (2009): Collecting outfits, building aquariums, feeding virtual fish, and constantly trading items across newsfeeds.

Before this weekend, I was holding onto way too many platforms out of pure habit.

So I finally went through and did a full audit of where I stand with all of them:

• Pinterest: Keeping it (mostly for creative ideas and project inspiration).
• Facebook: Keeping for now (unless MySpace somehow comes back the way it used to be).
• TikTok: Keeping it.
• Instagram: Meh… keeping it for now, but I might just delete it soon.
• Snapchat: GONE.
• Threads: GONE.
• X (formerly Twitter): GONE.
• YouTube: I don’t really consider YouTube to be social media as much as a streaming service for music videos, movies, TV, and interesting videos.

I started out on Blogger back in the day, but eventually I made the jump over to WordPress because I wanted real control over my space instead of being boxed into Google’s restrictive templates and whatever features they decided to strip away next.

I used Blogaholic, I think it’s called, to promote my blogs back then.

I can’t tell you how many blogs I have been through, and honestly, it doesn’t matter.

I cannot even tell you how many usernames or domain names I have burned to the ground and rebuilt over the years, and again, it doesn’t matter.

Every single time I changed my site, purged old content, or switched up my digital identity, someone always had some unsolicited, bullshit opinion about it—like I owed them consistency or needed their permission to evolve.

Honestly? I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone thinks anymore.

It’s my creative space, my server bill, and my life.

It’s my prerogative and my money, my internet, so if you don’t like my changes, you know where the exit button is.

FUCK OFF!!

So let’s add that up: 1996–current.

Thirty years online.

Holy fuck!

No wonder why I am exhausted trying to keep up.

No wonder depression and anxiety kicks in.

Trying to keep up with the trends, the people, and the drama was exhausting for me.

I decided that it’s time to clean it all up, so I started to delete accounts.

I have been not going on Facebook half as much, my blog only posts there mostly on the blog’s Facebook page.

I just don’t have the time, energy, or bandwidth for the drama I see on social media anymore.

I miss the fun stuff (surveys, music, graphics), like MySpace was.

I do miss FUBAR it was fun, you went into a virtual bar and made “friends” sending drinks to each other and just had fun.

When you sit down and quantify thirty years of being plugged into a glowing screen, the weight of it hits you like a brick.

That is three decades of absorbing other people’s opinions, watching algorithms dictate what we see, constantly adjusting to new UI updates, and feeling that subtle, persistent pressure to stay relevant, stay connected, and keep up with every single shift in internet culture.

We weren’t built to process the constant, uninterrupted noise of thousands of voices shouting into our ears 24 hours a day.

It breeds a unique kind of mental fatigue, where your brain never truly gets to go idle or rest.

Deleting those accounts wasn’t just about clearing digital storage; it was an act of self-defense.

Reclaiming your bandwidth means recognizing that your attention is finite, and giving it away to outrage bait, toxic political comment sections, or virtue-signaling drama is a complete drain on your soul.

I don’t want to spend my evenings navigating someone else’s bad mood or watching people argue over things that don’t matter.

I miss the era when the internet was a playground rather than a battlefield.

It used to be light, creative, and human.

Now that it’s all outrage, ads, and corporate algorithms, stepping back isn’t losing anything—it’s taking my peace of mind back.

What happened?

Corporations took over, politics and religions took over.

GREED took over.

I just found out about the absolute insanity happening on TikTok right now, and it completely blew my mind.

If you don’t want your account to get constantly shadowbanned or, as they call it, “Nannered” (because heaven forbid adults speak like actual adults on the internet without getting flagged by sensitive AI bots), you basically have to sign your life away to a TikTok agency or Talent Network (LIVE Agencies / MCNs).

Think about how dystopian that is.

To keep your account safe, these middleman corporate agencies act like digital sweatshop managers.

They monitor your account, dictate what you can and cannot say, and force you into contracts where they require you to meet a minimum quota of live hours per week—literally telling you how many hours you have to sit in front of a camera begging for digital gifts or pushing products just to keep your profile in the algorithm’s good graces.

You end up answering to a manager, sticking to a schedule, and taking orders just to use a free app on your own damn phone.

How are people falling for this shit? Make that make sense to me!

If an agency or a corporate app is going to dictate my time, monitor my speech, and treat my personal page like a corporate franchise, they better be paying my monthly internet bill, buying my hardware, and mailing me a real paycheck with benefits every two weeks.

Otherwise, FUCK THAT!!!

Here is what TikTok and these corporate apps have become today:

• Algorithmic Censorship & “Un-aliving” Culture: Grown adults have been conditioned to speak in ridiculous coded baby-talk—saying “sew slide,” “unalive,” “le $bian,” and “Nannered”—just so a corporate bot doesn’t flag their account for human speech.
• Agency Exploitation & Live Quotas: Agencies lure creators in promising protection from bans, only to take a massive cut of their earnings and force strict quotas on how many hours they must broadcast live each week.
• The TikTok Shop Machine: What used to be a fun app for quick laughs, dance trends, creative editing, and niche communities has turned into a 24/7 QVC infomercial feed pushing cheap dropshipped junk every three scrolls.
• Pay-to-Play Shadowbanning: Unless you are paying for “Promote” features, tied to an agency, or constantly driving revenue for the platform, the algorithm buries your reach in favor of corporate ad spend.

When is enough for us all to finally stop using all this shit and show these companies that we are not going to take it anymore?

My sister Vickie says Social Media is exhausting.

She is so right!!

I am saying digital life as a whole is exhausting.

Seriously people we have all this technology at our fingertips—smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, laptops, desktop computers, e-readers, smart TVs, streaming sticks, handheld gaming units, and smart home speakers—and we wonder why we are exhausted.

Did or does anyone think it’s all the technology killing our ambitions, our drives, our energy?

Look at what we juggle every single day.

I have so many crafts to do now.

I have eight fur-babies to spend time with.

I work full time at a computer all day long.

I read books actual hand held or ebooks (Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Libby, Hoopla, Nook, StoryGraph), listen to music (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, SiriusXM, podcasts).

I play on my switch 2, oh don’t get me started there either with all the gaming systems (Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam Deck, retro handhelds), never mind let’s talk about those too why not!!!

And on top of that, we have all the cloud options too (iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, pCloud, MEGA) and all the OS systems for devices (Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS, watchOS).

And don’t even get me started on the television and movie side of things!

We replaced traditional cable to “save money,” and now we are bogged down by a dozens-deep list of video streaming platforms that raise their prices every six months while locking content behind password-sharing bans and ad tiers:

• The Major On-Demand Giants: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max (HBO Max), Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Apple TV+, Paramount+, and MGM+.
• Niche & Specialty Channels: AMC+, Starz, BritBox, Discovery+, Shudder, Crunchyroll, Criterion Channel, and Acorn TV.
• Free Ad-Supported Streaming (FAST): Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, and Plex.
• Live TV Cable Replacements: YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, FuboTV, DirecTV Stream, and Philo.

When you step back and look at what these platforms used to be versus the sterile, corporate ad-engines they are now, it’s heartbreaking.

I remember when TikTok was actually fun—before it got hollowed out by greed.

It used to be a place where everyday people shared genuine moments: showing off incredible cosplay builds that took months to make, sharing hilarious life stories, posting delicious home recipes without needing a 10-minute sponsored pitch, or showing off ridiculous dancing trends that brought a genuine laugh to your afternoon.

It felt like an organic playground for everyday creativity.

Now? Every third video is a scripted ad pushing a useless gadget from a digital shopfront, or a creator reading from a brand script because their agency requires it.

The spontaneity is dead.

The genuine human connection is gone.

It has been replaced by monetized noise, fake outrage, and corporations wringing every last drop of profit out of our attention spans.

That is precisely why you are seeing less and less of me on these feeds.

I keep Facebook for one reason and one reason only: to keep a quiet line open to the family I do have—my chosen family and real friends who matter to me.

I’m not on there to engage with the endless political arguments, the algorithmic anger-bait, or the digital posturing.

I am using these platforms strictly on my terms now, refusing to give my time or energy to apps that view us as nothing more than metrics to sell to advertisers.

Honestly I am going through all of my internet stuff and computer stuff, even other apps and killing them.

I am getting to a point where I don’t want to be online as much.

I will write on the blog, it’s not like I have a huge following for it, it’s for me to write and maybe what I write resonates with someone.

Now we have all of these AI assistants to choose from—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and Meta AI, all vying to act as search engines, creative partners, code writers, productivity managers, and conversational bots.

At this point in my life, now that Ronnie and I are back to living healthier lives, I am finding myself not online as much.

When we go out I use my phone for pictures that is it or directions.

I have so many crafts to do now.

I have eight fur-babies to spend time with.

I work full time at a computer all day long.

How do we change this?

Well I am getting more and more back into living offline, more living life away from the technology.

Trips with Ronnie, going to California in September, reading books, crafting.

Here are real, practical ways to turn off the noise, step away from the glowing boxes, and get back to actual living—not just for your time, but for your people, your animals, and your own peace of mind:

1. Reclaim Your Time & Mindspace

• Establish a “Digital Sunset”: Pick a hard cutoff time every evening (like 7:00 PM) where non-essential screens go dark. Log off the work computer, turn off the TV, and park your phone in another room so your brain can finally switch into rest mode.
• Get an analog alarm clock: Stop using your phone as your morning alarm. Keeping it off your nightstand prevents late-night doomscrolling and stops you from waking up straight into a wall of notifications.
• Flip your phone to gray-scale: Turn your phone’s display to black-and-white in your settings. When the bright, shiny colors are gone, your bright display isn’t constantly trying to hook your brain.
• Embrace the quiet waiting moments: When standing in line at the store, waiting for an appointment, or sitting outside, leave your phone in your pocket. Let your mind wander, observe the world around you, or just catch your breath without filling every second with digital noise.

2. Be Fully Present for the People & Animals in Your Life

• Give undivided presence to your people: When you’re sitting down with your spouse, hanging out with chosen family, or catching up with actual friends, put the devices completely out of sight. No face-down phones on the dinner table, no glancing at wrists for smart-watch alerts, and no splitting your attention while someone is speaking to you.
• Uninterrupted time with your animals: Dedicate hands-free time every single day to your fur-babies—whether that’s playing, grooming, or just letting them snuggle on your lap without you looking over the top of a glowing rectangle. They know when you’re actually there versus when you’re just physically present.
• Choose real conversations over text threads: Pick up the phone for a real call or make plans to meet up in person instead of exchanging fragmented text messages or commenting on social media posts.

3. Build Physical “Landing Zones” for Real-World Living

• Set up a dedicated offline creative spot: Keep a physical workspace ready for your current crafts so you can sit right down and make something with your hands without having to clear off a table or pull out supplies first.
• Keep physical books within arm’s reach: Place actual paper books on your coffee table, nightstand, and kitchen counter. Make picking up a real book your default reflex instead of reaching for a screen.
• Use a physical notebook or paper planner: Keep a real paper journal or notebook handy for jotting down thoughts, plans, and to-do lists rather than opening a phone app.
• Travel analog: When you go on road trips, use your phone strictly for turn-by-turn directions and taking photos. Bring along physical road atlases, travel books, or paper notebooks to plan the route and capture the memories.

4. Draw Hard Boundaries with Technology

• Protect your dinner table: Make meal times a strict device-free zone. Use that time to talk through your day, enjoy a good meal, and connect without a video playing or notifications buzzing in the background.
• Audit and purge app clutter: If an app leaves you feeling angry, drained, or pressured to perform and keep up, delete it. You don’t owe any platform your time, your data, or your peace of mind.
• Remember your prerogative: Your time, your money, your internet connection, and your devices belong to you. Step away whenever you want, change your mind whenever you want, and live life on your own terms offline.

Now that I am completely exhausted just writing all of this out, editing, rewriting, and dumping three decades of digital history into one place, I am stepping away from the computer for the night.

I am closing the laptop, parking the phone, and enjoying some real, offline time to do any one of the million hands-on crafts sitting on my shelves:

• Assembling Rolife’s “The Magic Study” DIY miniature house kit and crafting miniature witchy book nooks.
• Detail painting ceramic pieces like my Halloween pumpkins, snowmen, sunflowers, birdhouses, ceramic Christmas trees, and bird-on-the-moon decor.
• Painting laser-cut wooden skeleton characters, wooden heart boxes, and snowflake coasters with my acrylic paints.
• Working on my diamond painting kits—like my western boots with flowers, Day of the Dead skeletons, “My Last Flying Fuck” art, or cozy apothecary shelves—organized in my ArtDot trays and multi-grid storage containers.
• Decoupage and hot glue DIY projects with my Mod Podge, glue gun, moss, and embellishments.
• Breaking out my wooden organizers full of dual-tip markers, colored pencils, and scrapbooking paper stacks for some quiet coloring and paper crafting.
• Or just curling up away from every glowing screen with a real book from my shelf—right now it’s Courtney Weber’s “Hekate: Goddess of Witches”, right alongside my stack of Jennie Garth, Tabitha Brown, Jennette McCurdy, Pippa Best, Sarah Beth Durst, and Nora Roberts.

The screens are dark. My hands are busy. I’m stepping back into the real world.

Until next time my lovely feral, dark, and bright ones,