I was challenged by Anne-Laure Le Cunff to end the year with a tiny experiment.

She writes, “We optimize our life for certainty. What if instead, we approached everything and everyone from a place of curiosity?”

And I think that will be my motto for 2025.

My experiment: I will not use social media for 30 weekdays. This includes Twitter, Instagram, TikTok ( which i had for work), Reddit, Facebook, and anything else that uses an algorithm to put short form reading in my face. 

Why this experiment: I am finding that the intensity and instant-ness of social media is affecting how I think and read. So by eliminating it and replacing it with long form reading (newspapers, magazines, books, and some Substacks) I am hoping to strengthen my focus and my thinking skills. 

How I will learn in public:

I will post updates here and write a Medium story or two each week of the experiment.(https://medium.com/@susanhaven if you want to follow along.)

“We optimize our life for certainty. What if instead, we approached everything and everyone from a place of curiosity?”

Week 2 Update: 

From the start, I went ahead and deleted all the apps from my phone and my iPad. (Twitter/X, Instagram were the main ones. I have a Facebook account that I use for my day job occasionally to help the social media director with comments, but I don’t use it on a device, only my work computer). And I did not go to the sites over the weekends, for reasons below.

I have instead been reading real books, reading actual newspaper/magazine articles, and some Medium articles. What I have noticed so far:

When I feel anxiety, I don’t have quick hits of social media to distract me, so I have to feel it and get to the other side. (My day job is funded by a grant, that may not be renewed, so I can justify a bit of anxiety. Also, sending out resumes, just in case 🙂 )

I do feel calmer about actual news. The new US Administration is historically chaotic, and it is comforting to not have to keep up with chaos. A weekly check in with a newspaper catches me up with news, and there is nuance and reflection rather than “Oh No! What Now?” I decided to keep the experiment going over the weekends, since it was getting easier and I didn’t want to have multiple day 1’s. 

In the past ten days, I have read 3 non-fiction books on interesting things, I have gotten some quality work done on my novel in process. And I am caught up on day job tasks. Amazing what a little focus can do!

Now if I can get a handle on this “learning in public” thing. It’s a hard concept for us first-born Uber-responsible, must-be-perfect-at-all-times girls.