Ash Wednesday 2026, I announced to the world I was giving up social media for Lent. Now, I’m not catholic, as evidenced with the reality Ash Wednesday begins Lent and announcing on social media I was giving up social media hilariously reminded me of how ridiculous social media can be.
“Announced to the world” or I should say announced to 1,108 people who are my friends on Facebook, most of who probably muted or unfollowed me years ago and the others probably won’t see what I say because of ads and algorithms that spread us further from one another.
The EGO or feeling of over importance (whichever you prefer) is exasperated by the notion you can say something and maybe thousands of people could see it. Scary and exciting as it may seem, the hope is maybe I could reach someone and they’ll see things differently, maybe in a positive direction.
The reality is, I’ll never know if that’s true and also, I need to see things differently sometimes as well.
After arguing the same stance against multiple people over hours can leave you with a verbal and nervous system shield ready to block anything and defend yourself when the opportunity presents itself.
Doing this days, weeks, months, years on end can lead you down a road where maybe you’re arguing for things you don’t believe in just because of the logicality of the subject matter or the semantics of the words chosen.
What kind of life is that?
Started out trying to be a positive influence only to become the exact person I’m arguing against.
Being off socials for Lent led to me going further past Lent. What a refresher life was again. Being off socials subsequently resulted in me not being on my phone as much and offered some clarity on certain aspects of life.
For One, I realized how much people have truly lost their minds due to algorithmic interruptions of their subconscious and nervous system.
These tech companies are sadistic and sick to try and successfully hack the human nervous system for profit and power to rule over us. However, they need engagement in order to work their way in. The more engagement one has with the platform per day increases the defense mechanism each algorithm is building inside of you.
It’s only a thin layer of automatic response but it’s really what the majority of people are arguing about. Most people are arguing other people’s arguments and not even arguing their own points. Too much repetition of the same talking points. Blah blah blah, stop talking.
Give me something authentic. Something real. That’s something technology will never be able to take away from the human experience.
Second thing I came to notice is how less I actually care to give the news any energy to either Donald Trump’s antics, the government’s corruption, or what my sports teams were up to.
The things that matter aren’t on the television screen, cell phone, or internet. The people in your proximity and in your life are more important than cracking the code of how to solve the AI issues on the Internet for no one to read or care about.
Life is all around us and it’s up to you to engage with it.
Which is the 3rd thing: Love the ones around you. Connection is one of the greatest things life offers and the social media mediums are only surface level. Just like the auto response systems they build inside of you, they don’t all encompass the whole.
The deep connection to what it means to be human and have a human experience is had with actual people in the real world and unhackable.
We should never stop trying to better the world. Maybe one day in the future we can get to a point where we can level off and chill but we’re all going to disagree with each other about things along the way and that’s just the reality of the situation.
Therefore, we might as well have a good time with the people around us while we can and cherish those we’re lucky enough to call friends and family. For that’s the only way to live in the world you want to see changed for the better.
With Love, Rob.
The Other Side of Sports 