I’m visiting my brother James “Woody” Wade in Lausanne during May, taking advantage of the stunning view of Lake Geneva to put a few recent musings and ideas down on paper.

When’s the last time you ditched your phone for a real moment?

A few nights before my departure to Switzerland, Christi and I were sitting in an Austin restaurant. While we were deciding what to order, I noticed a young woman sitting alone at the bar. She had her face buried in her smartphone, scrolling through social media updates. During the entire time it took us to be seated, order an appetizer, devour the entree, finish our dinner, pay the bill and leave, she remained glued to her device.

Her screen trance reminded me to keep cutting social media from my life.

My writing view from the back deck above Lausanne, May 4

I’ve heard it said that being on social media is like being at a party. While you don’t need to stand on the table and shout, you may want to be present. It’s a solid analogy that has stopped me, more than once, from leaving social media for good.

But I want to, so badly. I am already well ahead of the curve in limiting my exposure. Back in 2015, I removed the popular social media apps from my iPhone (I never allowed “push” notifications). Then in 2017 when the world of unreality otherwise known as “the comments section of your Facebook account” blew up, I decided I would commit to a stronger walkaway from Zuckerberg’s folly.

Rather than unfriend my connections, I decided to briefly leave the party and re-enter from a side door. How? I created a second Facebook page, “migrated” my favorite images over to this newer page and then deleted the original account. I told no one in advance. Those who wished to reconnect would soon be able to find me (and my saved photos) again at my new FB page (Facebook’s algorithm made it easy, placing my new account within sight of the old connections within a day).

Eventually about 65% found me — a nice mix of former high school and hometown friends, as well as a few from the present. I accepted any and all invitations to reconnect, yet initiated no new outreach.

Not only did the move increase my productivity, it gave me a much greater sense of freedom. The new account eliminated numerous distractions, drastically reducing having to deal with the unpleasant opportunity for some random comment, usually made by a friend’s friend, to leech the mood.

It worked. For about two years.

Finally in March 2023, I deleted Facebook. I had been using the app less and less, and stopped posting to it and to Instagram. Twitter, which I have set up to bring only sports news into my feed, is my last remaining SM tool – and the clock is ticking.

Today I firmly believe that social media is a vampire. It drains our energy and hands every ghoul (the people Dennis Miller called ‘emotional hemophiliacs’) a megaphone.

Sound harsh/impossible? I used to think so. Now, not so much.

For far too many of us (and perhaps for the aforementioned girl checking her updates), social media is an actual addiction. The various platforms learn someone’s preferences, display information to reinforce that person’s biases and then manipulate his brain.

Social media posts prompt you to fight it out with a perceived foe and track comments, resulting in more tracking/comments, clicks, return visits and alerts which lead you back to start the cycle anew.

Screw all that.

Our smartphones and screens can actually serve as a tremendous gateway to knowledge, when used “smarter.”

Your devices should never have the power to interrupt you. You should always be in control.

Making the device more proactive requires only a few tweaks. Whenever I do find myself looking at “optional” browsing sites or messages, I try to keep these criteria in the back of my mind:

• Am I going to interact with this particular message-sender in coming days/weeks?

• Did this information inform or entertain me?

If the answer is no to both, I mute that source. The result is a really clean feed.

The prospect of any future meaningful discourse on social media seems doubtful. It is to blame for the greatest division of opinions and beliefs since 1968, the height of Vietnam.

On top of all that – humans just weren’t meant to live squinting over a four-inch screen.

I’d rather step back, enjoy life, and go back to researching topics and sources that interest me, rather than being exposed to the nonsense out there.

Moving away from the distractions of social media, I can re-commit to words of substance. I can abandon these disposable comments and instead return to reading (or listening to) books or writing thoughtfully, without the constant unease about whether my “friends” agree or “like.”

By unplugging, I can enjoy information again and even create a few new word combinations that bring me (or others) joy, provoke a thought or simply provide a moment of reflection. From here on, it’s: Remove face from tiny screen; look around and move forward with intention.