Reflections on a Social Media Fast
On the Social Media Fast of May 14th-21st 2025
During the past five years, partly because of my living alone and determining how to live my own independent life, I have developed a complex relationship with the internet.
There are many gifts that can be found in the internet. For one, I love that the internet gives me the ability to connect to my friends and family on the other side of the planet. The move to Japan would be unimaginable without the internet (though I still debate with myself whether or not the move to Japan was overall good or bad and how much longer it might last) as I simply could not exist in such an isolated state. The internet also gives me the ability to connect with my girlfriend and organize in-person meetings with her while our long distance relationship continues. The internet is a means to access social media and YouTube — content that, in some ways, allows me to parasocially connect with the English-speaking world and encounter frens on websites like X. Another gift of the internet is that it provides me with the largest library of all time. At any moment, I am able to access the works of Seneca, of Laozi, commentaries on their work through the ages, and even the divinely inspired word of Master Himself, His revelation to mankind in the form of the Holy Scriptures. Never before has man had so much information at his fingertips. I hunger for knowledge and find myself within the grandest of buffets.
However, the internet is also demonic. Particularly with social media (the focus of my fast), conversations seeking engagement tend towards topics that lean into emotional extremes. By even reading the discourse that takes place, I am being drained of my energy and my mental and spiritual health are strained. Checking my notifications results in a break in my focus every five minutes as I flip over my phone or open a new tab to enter the social media website into the URL bar. These small checks lasting five seconds and taking place every five to ten minutes may not seem like a lot of time, but these checks interrupt my ability to focus. The ability to focus is key — It is the ability to focus that helps us develop the ability known as “concentration-without-effort,” the monastic silence that allows man to come into communion with God’s grace (cf. Psalm 46:10). As an Orthodox Christian, my faith and my relationship with the Master is of the highest priority which is infringed and violated by the constant noise of social media. When one comes under constant exposure to different ideas voices, it becomes harder to hear one’s own voice and to observe one’s own thoughts, allowing them to become still like a body of water reflecting the surface of the moon — the stillness that is needed for coming into contact with the ground of our being, the stillness that is the peace the Master came to bring us (John 14:27). YouTube provides countless hours of content that I find interesting, so much so that it paralyzes me. It glues me into my computer chair for hours upon hours upon hours, caught in an eternal feedback loop, the eternal recurrence of the same, caught in pure temporality and arbitration the fruits of which is ultimately death (cf. Romans 6:23). Every now and then, a voice from outside of time talks to me. “Do you even care about this video game that is the subject of a five hour review you’re watching?” “This comedian isn’t even funny. You know this. And yet you watch?” “There are many other things you should be doing to become who you were made to be. And yet you put your destiny to the side to watch yet another review of an 80s cartoon you have never heard of.” “Couldn’t you keep watch with Me for one hour?” Sometimes I might find a video with an intriguing title claiming to answer a question I’ve long had but when I watch it, my eyes glaze over and I consume without thinking, only to leave the video not understanding what I had wanted to understand. I did not take notes like I needed to but instead gave my consciousness a false sense of satisfaction by thinking I did something meaningful or productive. I will forget the insights of that video within seconds as I click on a different video. And even in regards to the endless amount of information accessible to me, I can spend hours upon hours upon hours in study without actually taking any theory I learn into practice while neglecting my other duties and disciplines. There is a reason why Saint Thomas Aquinas identified curiosity as a vice.
Over the years, it is becoming more clear that I need to develop a stronger set of rules of engagement when it comes to my usage of the internet, especially social media. At different points in my life, I have attempted to regulate my internet usage. Each time, each set of rules produced wonderful results (my first internet fast put me on the path to my conversion to Christianity) but they were often unsustainable. Last week, I found myself once more immersed in the pure temporality of the internet, particularly with X. On Wednesday evening, I decided to walk away from X and endless scrolling in general for one week.
This poast is an overview of some of my observations at the end of this fasting of the eyes.
The Rules and Their Development
“If a thought is not worth being a video or a substack poast, it isn’t worth being tweeted.” — Commander Radix, 2025
Before continuing to my observations, I must contextualize the fast by establishing the rules which I held myself to during this fast.
First and foremost, as the portal to hell was X, I took two actions: I deleted X from my phone and blocked X on my browser with the BlockSite extension. My biggest issue with X in the days leading up to the fast was that I defaulted to it habitually during times of boredom. To break the habit, I blocked the site but also redirected the site to my “Digital Minimalism” page in my Notion which contains a list of all my research notes on digital minimalism. I had not yet organized all of my thoughts and everything I had learned about digital minimalism. By constantly being redirected to that page, I was able to spend some time to organize my notes there which would be helpful as I considered how I was to engage with X, social media, and the internet as a whole once the fast ended.
With my phone, meanwhile, I still tended to open up other infinite scrolling apps that I almost never use but now opened frequently since X had been uninstalled. On the second day of the fast, it became clear that I was simply trading wasted time in one app for wasted time in another. And so, I uninstalled Instagram from my phone and blocked Instagram on my browser with BlockSite as well. I then moved on to the infinite scrolling on Facebook. This was a different issue — I need the Facebook app on my phone for the Messenger app with which I regularly connect with my friends and church community. Ultimately, I ensured that notifications on Facebook would be sent to my e-mail, blocked Facebook on my browser, and downloaded an app on my phone which has a name I don’t remember but blocked access to the Facebook app on my phone thanks to the blocking app while keeping the Messenger app available to contact friends. Whew.
But two things were then revealed to me — I noticed that now, instead of scrolling X forever, I was watching endless YouTube videos (albeit this was a constant problem in my life). In addition to this, the thought occurred to me: If I could get my notifications on Facebook through my e-mail, couldn’t I get all of my notifications through e-mail?
Let’s start with the “e-mail as social media” idea. I decided to clear out my inbox and prepared my e-mail to be my main aggregate of online content. I pruned by Substack following list, I unsubscribed from e-mail lists that were clogging my inbox, I checked the settings for social media that were not blocked by my browser, and there I had it: A majority of the content I receive online is accessible from my e-mail inbox which is not infinite scrolling and can delete things I’ve already seen and read. I intend on doing this with X and Instagram once my fast ends (UPDATE: Apparently X’s e-mail notifications and even post notifications haven’t been working for weeks?). By making e-mail my “access point,” I avoid seeing the feeds of things I don’t actually care about and being captured by the algorithms.
To the YouTube issue, I realized that I could use the time I had gained through the social media fast to develop and conceptualize when and how I would use YouTube. My digital minimalism notes page on Notion which I was encountering time and time again was filled with earlier notes on how to engage YouTube. I decided to bring it all together.
For one, while I cannot get e-mails notifying me of new uploads from channels I’ve subscribed to, I can consolidate all of my subscriptions (pruned) into an RSS feed. In my case, I use Feedly. With Feedly, I see the new videos from my subscriptions essentially like another e-mail inbox — No infinite scrolling, no algorithm, advertisements, suggested videos, etc. Much less temptation.
Secondly, I followed Odysseas’ advice on mindful content consumption — I categorize all YouTube videos into two categories: Information and entertainment. For informative videos, these are videos that could actually teach me something. Instead of sitting back and letting this actually useful information pass me by, I must be taking notes on informative videos (and organizing these notes in my Notion. I probably should talk about how much I love Notion and how I use it at some point because this is a key part of how I handle information). For entertainment videos, I limit myself to only two hours worth of entertainment videos per day. Maybe two hours seems excessive to you, but understand that I could easily spend 10 hours a day on YouTube watching videos I don’t even care about. I think two hours might even be an ambitious start for me.
Over the course of this fast, I gradually consolidated a system of rules and procedures for mindfully and intentionally interacting with the internet. For example, I noticed around Day 3 or 4 that I was refreshing my e-mail inbox and Feedly inbox over and over again just like how I was constantly checking X before. I now have added the rule that I can only access these things from my desktop (not my phone). I have also established that I can check my e-mail and Feedly thrice a day — Once after morning prayer, once after afternoon prayer, and once after work. At those times, I prune my inboxes and take what seems interesting and paste the links into my “Read/Watch Later” page on Notion. This provides a finite list of content that I can check throughout the day while being at peace that once I finish the list, it’s done for the day. I intend to gradually decrease the amount of times I allow myself to check the inboxes to twice a day to once a day. Maybe, if I can find more ways to use my time, I could limit it to once a week. I am already considering not checking at all on Friday and perhaps Wednesday and perhaps on weekends as well.
I did a similar thing with news — Instead of doomscrolling the news, I check Google News in the morning, review the headlines, take stories that seem interesting and put them in my “Read/Watch Later” page and then block Google News every morning. I keep Google News blocked on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as well. I may build up to all social media being blocked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which is a similar rule that the Prudentialist holds to. Discord will be checked once daily after work, perhaps to be reduced in the future.
I am, of course, writing this poast on the last day of my fast. When the fast ends, I will institute new rules for engaging with social media like X — I do not want to simply delete X. I created my X for a reason — to promote things I make. But over time, I have been too busy to make anything because scrolling X has been more interesting. It is time to return to those roots (the radix, if you will) and remember the Commander Radix X account is meant to shout out new content from me. However, I’ve certainly developed a sort of identity over on X and made frens and mutuals with many wonderful people. I would like to continue (and perhaps even enhance) my relationships with my mutuals and so I will not turn the Radix X into some corporate account. At the same time, I want to use X more mindfully and intentionally. One of the lines I wrote in my journal during this fast was about how I would post literally everything that came to mind which made me unable to really have a private thought: “If a thought is not worth being a video or a substack poast, it isn’t worth being tweeted.”
So, I will allow myself to open up the X account on my desktop if one of the following conditions are met:
I am responding to a post made by a fren (I will know my fren posted through notifications sent to my e-mail).
I am promoting something I’ve made (like a Substack poast or a YouTube video, the whole reason I have an X in the first place)
I am providing updates to the Commander Radix audience on my creative activity
I am sharing a piece of information I found in my leisurely research or reading (the social and sharing aspect of knowledge is elaborated on in my favorite article I’ve read this year)
I am updating my #RadixReads2025 thread (which I keep for my own record as well as to promote reading which I think is an important practice we all would benefit from)
I am wishing blessings on everyone on a certain holiday or anniversary.
But (hopefully) I will no longer doomscroll on X nor will I post every single thought I have nor get involved in “dunking” on fools or engaging in disputes on X.
Observations
“Christianity tastes so good when u ain’t got a Romanidean in ya ear telling you it’s heresy.” — Commander Radix, 2025
Before the fast, X was getting on my nerves and even more so as the days went on. The algorithm was promoting posts that were escalating in stupidity. My “For You” tab in particular was related to the Christian faith but Lord, have mercy on us, ChristianX is one of the worst worlds I have ever seen. I was constantly, without fail encountering someone smugly posting doctrines that were essentially condemned as heresies by ecumenical councils as far back as 1,700 years ago.
On top of that, the election of Leo XIV as the Pope of Rome opened up the floodgates of terrible discourse on that cursed site, whether it be Protestants calling the Pope the Antichrist, Orthodox making up fake quotes from saints calling the Pope the Antichrist, Roman Catholics entering a civil war over whether or not the Pope was trad or lib, Roman Catholics responding to ad hominem attacks against them by other Christians with ad hominem attacks of their own against the others (unleashing a new yet tiringly round in the Saint Peter the Aleut discourse), and so on.
And there is always the grating issue of online Orthodoxy. Constant fighting over doctrine. Constant confusion over what makes something dogmatic, what makes something doctrinal, and what makes something a theologoumenon, and what makes something a heresy. Constant confusion over what dogma, doctrine, theologoumenon, and heresy even is. Rampant rigorism, Romanideanism, polemics, judgement1 and a complete lack of charity, hatred disguised as love2, and varying degrees of ethnophyletism3 have made me always at least a little bit hesitant to interact with my brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church online. Someone did a break down of one of the more popular Orthodox accounts on the website and found that a vast majority of his posts in the past few days were polemical posts against Roman Catholicism (I don’t have access to the study since I can’t open X right now). I get tired of another major Orthodox account which almost always makes posts worded in such a way to insight anger and the passions within non-Orthodox or even Orthodox who hold different theologoumena than he does. Obviously, not all Orthodox accounts are bad (I love my mutuals, for example) but these online types help to give the Church a certain reputation among others online. When I read the Scriptures, the lives of the saints, and writings from the saints, I see a very different faith than the one I see lived through the posts of some of these accounts. That being said, of course, we all have our own struggles and I only see a sliver of their lived experience, I myself am a sinner, and so on.
I do not say any of that with the goal of offending. Nor do I think I am above anyone else. Perhaps it wasn’t my place to say all of that, but I say all that simply to say what sort of an effect these patterns I was exposed to by the algorithm effected me, leaving me in a constant state of provocation and being further immersed in temporality.
The fast from X has been a wonderful choice for my spiritual health. For the first few days, I even jokingly said to myself “Christianity tastes so good when u ain’t got a Romanidean in ya ear telling you it’s heresy.” Perhaps that’s the slogan of this week’s fast. Without constantly hearing the voices of the online world, my spiritual formation was ministered to by the Scriptures and the lives of the saints, their writings (such as On the Prayer of Jesus by Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov), the homily of my priest, the Divine Liturgy, and videos from our clergy like Fr. Josiah Trenham and Fr. Spyridon Bailey whose videos I made time to watch. Most importantly, I was able to make more time for prayer.
By disconnecting from social media, I was able to hear myself think as well. I allowed myself to think. As I hinted above, being constantly plugged into X made my thought process become such that my thoughts were all potential content, not my actual thoughts. After a week fast, I can say that my mind feels much more at ease and my thoughts much more at peace although I have much more to go. I don’t have to let all my thoughts become posts. I can pause. I can look at that thought, me and it together and alone. I can examine it. I can play with it. And then I can let it trickle away into my unconscious mind. I don’t have to turn it into content. I look forward to going into the future with these new digital minimalism rules. I pray that they will stick and be edifying for me.
I have come out of this fast with a stronger and clear manual on how I will engage with social media and the consumption of content to facilitate my living my own life and not forgetting to express myself through my own creations (which I hope I will make more time to engage in as I will spend less energy and time on social media. Look, I got this poast finished, didn’t I?
I think the collect for this week, from the Fourth Sunday after Easter, is apt for this fast:
O ALMIGHTY God, Who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: grant unto Thy people, that they may love the thing which Thou commandest, and desire that which dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord: Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
There is much that could be said here. That by setting my heart on God and seeking Him, putting aside the voices of temporality, I may be ordered and follow Him more truly. That amongst the temporal world, I can find my “true joy” in that Which does not change. And entire essay could be written on this collect alone.
With God’s help, may I take the lessons learned from this fast and apply them to manage my time much more mindfully and intentionally in a way that adheres to true values and what is important, as well as to facilitate my own creation and self-expression which I have been neglecting for most of this year so far. I have so much more to do and work through, but this is hopefully the first step.
I see the irony in typing this
There’s a certain mantra I see thrown around when someone is clearly being hateful to another person: “I love them and because I love them, I want them to repent. Because I want them to be repent, I am being harsh on them.” Oh, please. Stop and think about why your love is undisguisable from hate when seen from the outside. I could write a whole separate essay on this lazy, irresponsible and frankly demonic excuse.
This and perhaps ecumenism to the degree of compromising on the faith might be the only area IRL Orthodoxy tends to be worse than online Orthodoxy, speaking from my experience alone.