One Thing At A Time, Here and Now.

It's all we've ever been able to do.

Last night as we sat watching the Detroit Lions’ historic season come to a sad end, my older daughter suddenly said to her sister: oh shit…look!

TikTok had stopped working on her phone. And a couple minutes later, the same thing happened on her sister’s. They tried refreshing, to no avail. They shared with us the error screen that said something about hoping the incoming president would be of help.

I opened Instagram on the new phone I’d gotten the day before (in case of tariffs), finding screenshots of that message had been posted, along with re-posts of goodbye TikTok videos, middle finger to the government pics, etc. My daughters opened their Instagrams to find “for you” recommendations that were so off the mark (compared to TikTok) it sent them into fits of giggles.

During the nearly two decades of social media-ing I’ve done, I’ve had or was fiddling with accounts on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Hive, Mastodon, Tumblr, Threads, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Clubhouse, and here on Substack. For those times when it’s unfortunately necessary I also use CaringBridge. If you count messaging apps like Messenger, MarcoPolo, WhatsApp, and Voxer…

It’s Just So Much. And that’s not even including my five email addresses.

And yes, I even tried TikTok, mostly to see what I was missing on BookTok. I knew TT was having a major impact on book world. It seemed prudent to pay attention. In short order I had the requisite 1,000 followers to be able to go live, and I did a few times, and it was fun. The sense of geometric almost fractal-like structure and the sophistication of the app’s ability to make reference to / comment on conversations, juxtapose videos with other videos to surface layers of nuance, irony, humor…I understood its appeal. I do understand the losses, including very real monetary impacts, felt by TikTokers today.

For me, though, it felt like what I came to call the social media autobahn. If you can see something coming in the passing lane, move over or it’ll smash right into you.

And while I absolutely loved Everything Everywhere All At Once, I want the exact opposite right now. To slow down in the face of so much acceleration. To focus. To stretch my attention span again.

I’ve pruned channels of communication significantly now, with the goal of letting go of anything that is draining or redundant. Regarding the lack of fact checking…that’s always been on us. I never went to any social media site for cold hard facts anyway.

And so: the state of things in 2025:
Gone: Twitter/X, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Hive, and the aforementioned TikTok.
Work Hours Only, selected days per month: Clubhouse, LinkedIn
Shifting: Facebook Page for Andi Arndt, Narrator is mostly IG reposts now

Audience-specific platforms:
Friend and family groups: iMessage group chats, Messenger, phone calls and letters
Narrator colleagues and coaches: Mighty Networks narrator.life 365
Reader/Listeners: Instagram / Bookstagram and Substack
Industry Professionals: IG and LinkedIn
Personal: The other things I follow on IG and YouTube such as musicians, artists, actors, and other creatives (and dindin.in.paris), my personal Facebook filtered for closer connections, IG direct messages to share funny, thought-provoking and inspiring things with friends.

I realize this is just my list and it’s just this year’s plan, but the overall goal is to focus on one thing at a time, in the here and now, as offline as our modern lives will allow. We’ll see how this goes. I’d love to know what you’re doing differently this year.