I’ve deleted my Facebook account. Yes, I feel great! Aside from the ads and privacy conserns, here are my reasons for opting out of Facebook:

Why I Left Facebook

• I realised that Facebook wasn’t making me feel more connected, instead it was making me feel more disconnected.
• I’d rather put my time and efforts into maintaining deep relationships. Quality over quantity.
• I’d never “found my voice” for socialising on Facebook. In the context, I felt awkward about sharing anything personal enough to be interesting.
• Even if I didn’t use Facebook to communicate on a personal level, I would still have a nagging feeling that I ought to check in to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. More of an obligation than anything else.
• Finding focus and flow, space for creativity and slow life means making conscious decisions for which parts of the internet I want to keep in my daily life and which ones I can leave aside.

Paradox of Our Time

It’s a paradox of our time that we are at once hyperconnected, and can conveniently stay in touch with large numbers of people, but at once feel more lonely and lack close friendship. The ability to share everything instantly with a large group of people seems to dilute the personal value, trivialising it, so that broadcasting status updates strips away the intimacy that’s generated when sharing in one-to-one communication.

Status update: in the present. 

Related Reading

With friends like these … Tom Hodgkinson on the politics of the people behind Facebook | Technology | The Guardian

Tags: carpe diem, simplicity, slow life, social media

iPhone photography: Statue in the hidden park

Turning the corner, walking in behind the buildings by the bus stop where I get off every time I go to my local shopping centre, this small lush park with a fountain opened up before me. Out of the blue. Just like the day when I discovered another fountain.

Tags: carpe diem, iPhoneography, seize the day, summer

iPhone photography: View of Visby, Gotland

Back from three blissful weeks in Visby on Gotland – “the island of roses and ruins”. Waking up each morning to the sounds of birdsong and church bells and having locally grown strawberries for breakfast. Shakespeare’s Macbeth performed in a ruined medieval monastery. Watching the fairytale Swedish Royal wedding (extra exotic for me as I haven’t watched TV at home for six years) on TV. Morning walks along the medieval city wall. Runestones and Viking treasures of gold and silver and Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins dug up to this day all over the island. Walks in the botanical gardens (founded by The Bathing Friends in 1856). The scent of lilacs and roses on the terrace with a marvellous view of the city and the Baltic Sea. A magic Midsummer’s Eve.

The sunset tucked in a hibiscus petal, wrapping it around the horizon. White nights where each sunset faded into a new morning, dusk transitioning into dawn. Swallows, roses, blackbirds, poppies, blueweed, wood pigeons, peonies, pebbles and seaweed on the beech. Daisies and white clover. The salty scent of the sea. I took photos of the view from the terrace (almost) every day, just like I do with the oak tree outside the windows of my home.

As I unpack my lime green suitcase I find a mind map for creative ideas and inspirations, a few watercolours, a heavy stack of books, photos taken with my iPhone, a poem I wrote on the back of a napkin, some sketches I made on my iPad, a bag of saffron and almond rusks, jars of honey and Ramsons (wild garlic) pesto from Gotland and a gigantic pile of dirty laundry.

I feel so grateful and energized from this trip. Relaxed. Determined to find a new way to continue to live a slow life, staying on a Slow Media Diet. I feel inspired. And then I think about how I feel it’s so vital to travel. A change of scenery, however small or big the change may be. It can be something as simple as making the wrong turn when you step off the bus, or opening yourself up to an impulse to take a peek at what’s behind that building you always pass by on your way to something else.

And as I sit here typing this post, just about to write something about how our inner journey is as important as our outer journey, I hear the sound of a massive fireworks display. And I by that, I mean really impressive and orchestral, symphonic and majestic. I go out on the balcony to see if I can catch a glimpse of the fireworks, but I can’t, I can just hear the sounds… I’ll use my creative license to interpret the fireworks as a celebration for travel, for getting off the beaten track, for newfound inspiration, for growth, for rest and for fun and playful creativity.

Tags: carpe diem, celebration, creative process, gratitude, iPhoneography, seize the day, slow life, summer, travel

iPhone photography: The hill with wild flowers

Summertime, and the living is easy. Simple pleasures. Strawberries for breakfast. Picking wild flowers in the meadows. Dining alfresco. Watercolours. Bare feet on the dewy grass. Slow life.

Tags: carpe diem, ease, flowers, iPhoneography, seize the day, simplicity, slow life, summer

iPhone photography: feet by the fountain

You never know what you’ll come across, what you’ll find, or what you’ll SEE when you explore the streets of your own hometown! Here are some iPhone photos I snapped of petals scattered on the ground and swirling in the water of a fountain.

Tags: carpe diem, flowers, iPhone, iPhoneography, seize the day, Stockholm