28 Comments

I just deleted allllll of them last week and then installed Scrabble, quickly realized it was just another time suck, and deleted that too. I love how my phone behaves without all the notifications! 😆 I actually don't miss them or the constant drama/being marketed to.

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author

Exactly! We're the ones who put those apps on our phones. So we can remove them, too! Congrats on not missing your phone!

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The only social media I stay on is Substack and Discord…

I’m new-ish to Substack and wonder: how is it similar to and different from “traditional” social media? Notes has the infinite scroll and suggestions that drive me away from insta; the long form, blog style posts are clearly something more akin to Patreon, but Substack is not like Wordpress.

I’m getting more and more inclined to remove it from my phone and just read the people I follow and Subscribe to on the laptop.

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Substack Notes is different because it's one click closer to getting someone to subscribe to your email list. So if things burn down, you can export that list and go elswhere. You can't do that with other social media platforms.

And yes --- I sometimes need to remove the app from my phone. The pull is real.

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From a writer’s perspective, I get it for sure. My writing stays on my blog and I’m happy for virtually no one to read it, as it’s a hobby and not something I’m looking to make money off.

As a mindless consumer, though, I don’t see much relevant difference.

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author

Well then, maybe Substack isn’t for you!

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Maybe… I deleted it from the phone for 9 days and missed some of the writers and people I follow, so it’s back on. The longer form content is the draw for me, and I just need to be more vigilant about staying out of the Notes portion, which is, for me, just another endless scroll.

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I deleted social media in 2016 and it felt like I was deleting eras of my life when all my huge Facebook albums disappeared.

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Deactivated FB and Insta a few weeks ago and don’t miss them one bit. But: wondering if it’s *unhip slang alert* cringe to go back and leave a short message with my email address to let people know nothing bad happened, here’s how you can reach me, etc. Or is it best to just ghost and the people who want to find you will find you? I can’t decide. Thoughts?

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author

Maybe just leave your email in your About section? As a way to contact you, instead of a post.

Do you have a website that people find you via a Google search?

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Yeah, I do. I think that answers it! Ghost it is 🤘

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author

My new favorite thing - post and ghost! Haha

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Oct 16·edited Oct 16Liked by Seth Werkheiser

Twitter (X) account closed, Facebook and Insta deleted from the phone (try and only check them on the computer, or do occasionally install, do something specific, then delete again... baby steps!).

The Substack app has somewhat sneakily started filling the void, so that may have to go too! Need to spend more time reading articles rather than aimlessly scrolling Notes!

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author

Oh yes, Substack app has to get deleted every so often for me... to easy for me to check in on comments and stuff!

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Gone!

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author

I'll probably do the same today

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This is great. I’ve been off social media for years but since being a Substack post writer I find myself checking how many views my most recent post has got. Then feeling unclean. Need to find a way to manage that

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author

For me it's "post and ghost," hahah... and I sometimes delete the Substack app from my phone, too. Just replying to things and checking them when sitting at my desk (like right now)

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Post & Ghost. Nice way to put it.

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Oct 15Liked by Seth Werkheiser

I’ve just deleted sub…

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author

The Substack app? Oh yeah... I usually have to do that once every week or two.

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Oct 15Liked by Seth Werkheiser

Yes that was meant to be funny, as in I was deleting the app mid-sentence. It sounded funnier in my head anyway 😂

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author

Hey, you're just workshopping some material! I dig it haha

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Oct 15Liked by Seth Werkheiser

haha! Thanks :-) and thanks for your writing.

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Oct 15Liked by Seth Werkheiser

Okay, well ... I deleted two of the easy ones today, that I almost never check (tiktok, X), and one that I still do occasionally look at (FB). Next week I'll try for the actually hard one, Instagram. Baby steps.

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author

YEP... baby steps. It took me many stops and starts to delete all of them. LinkedIn was actually the hardest for me, for some reason haha

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deletedOct 15·edited Oct 15
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hahah YEAHHHHH.. it's hard, I know. It's BUILT and designed that way! Best thing you can do it try and fill up that time with other things that might make you feel better

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deletedOct 17
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That last part - the friends worth keeping. YEP.

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