Several months ago, my partner started listening to audiobooks before bed rather than scrolling social media. He puts in his earbuds and plays mindless sorting games (like this one) while he winds down before going to sleep. It's become a nightly ritual for him that he genuinely looks forward to.

Meanwhile, doom-scrolling and crashing out was my bedtime ritual.

And it was taking a massive toll on my mental health. I'm ashamed to admit how bad it was getting. I was giving myself panic attacks over scrolling people rehashing the same speculative "news" posts over and over and over...

At the time I was also going through some major burnout at my last job and various other stress, too. But the late night scrolling was NOT doing me any favors. I could feel my brain turning to JELL-O but felt helpless to stop it.

(Addiction, much?! *ahem*.)

Thankfully, my partner gently but firmly encouraged me to get the f*ck off TikTok and try his before bed ritual instead.

I had a freelance client gift me with a 12-month Audible subscription for Christmas (uh, how amazing is that, right?!) last year, and I had several credits built up (because I have decision paralysis sometimes and want to not "waste" my credits on the wrong thing)... so I figured, why not? I downloaded the blasted matching game, and used an Audible credit to download Lena Dunham's Famesick and off I went.

I finished it in mid-May. And then I kept going.

I started dusting off physical books that I'd picked up and left languishing on my TBR, too. I downloaded Libby and connected it to fresh new library cards that I got from Carnegie (Allegheny County) and the Free Library of Philadelphia. (If you live in Pennsylvania, you can get them, too!)

Then I got a notification from Amazon that the walking pad that I'd purchased for my home office last year had been recalled and I was going to get a refund for it. I no longer work from home, so it wasn't getting any use anyway... so I took that refund money and bought a Kindle Paperwhite, which I connected to my Libby account as well.

Feeling the change

Gradually from May till now (mid-July) I have felt my brain re-wiring, with no exaggeration. I have three books going at once: An audiobook for when I'm driving or doing housework, a paperback that I read with my morning coffee or if I have a chance to sit down during the day and leisurely read a few pages, and a Kindle book that I can read in bed (because my lighting in the bedroom is atrocious and my eyesight can't do a paperback in bed anymore).

I won't lie and say I'm not using social media anymore. First off, my job (communications/marketing) requires me to be connected on the most popular platforms, even though I'm not necessarily a fan. Second, I still do enjoy a quick scroll now and then, and even enjoy making a video here and there. But as I'm spending less time on the platforms and my focus is shifting, so too is my algorithm. I see more book reviews than bad news—and that has done my mental health a world of good.

The spillover effect

We know that reading has a myriad of benefits. (And conversely, not reading has some scary consequences.) But what I didn't anticipate was the impact this one change would have on my overall mental health. In the latter part of 2025 when I was at a low point, I lost interest in all the hobbies and interests that had once lit me up. I didn't want to knit. I didn't want to try new recipes cooking or baking. I was going through the motions caring for my pets and farm animals, but not enjoying it like I once did. I gave up on writing and all my other bucket list things I wanted to try or do or see. I started to really believe that's what mid-life was going to look like.

I can't tell you exactly why or how, but putting down the smartphone and picking up a book was the first step to fixing ALL of that.

Ok, so get to your point already—what's all this about 2006?

Hmph. Alright, alright! It's my damn blog. I'll take the roundabout way to get there if I want to.

Once I dialed back my social media and doom-scrolling, suddenly the things that once brought me joy started to light me up again. (FINALLY.)

I was reading again. I started knitting again. I started working on projects just for the sake of them being passion projects.

Then one day while going down a rabbit hole on book reviews, I stumbled upon bookycnidaria. Oh, bestill my heart! It looked like a blog that I recognized from the 2000s—back when Google Reader and my LiveJournal friends-feed were everything.

And because my hobbies and interests were coming back, I found myself reviving my profiles on platforms like Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Ravelry.

Which got me thinking...

Going old-school social

Maybe social media doesn't have to be a dirty word. Some of these platforms are looking a little -uh- dusty from a UI perspective, but they're still there. They're still functional. People are still using them.

But the difference is, those platforms are about sharing what you are DOING (as in, in real life, outside the interwebs), not about demanding your eyeballs and undivided attention for hours on end to monetize your data and sell you shit.

And whether you dust off an old LiveJournal (also still functional, by the way!), spin up a WordPress or Blogger account, or try something more modern like Substack, you can still share and connect.

Goodreads launched in 2006. Ravelry in 2007. Blogger and LiveJournal go all the way back to 1999.

I mean, I hate to sound like an old lady here, but uh—it was so much better then. And WHAT is stopping us from saying a big ol' eff you to the mainstream social media platforms and going back to that?!

(I'll tell you what... not a goddamn thing!)

So here I am. And here's this blog. Will anybody read it? Maybe not. But I'm back to something else I loved and had given up: writing. So even if I'm just a crazy old lady shouting into the ether, I'm going for it. Not to monetize or become an influencer... but for the sake of just doing it because it makes me happy.

(And you know what else would make me happy? To find other people doing this TOO. To have a "Blogroll" again! So hook me up with your link if you're on board!)