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As the school year is starting, we can be tempted to review our closet and decluter a bit. We might even be encouraged to do so by brands that hope to sell us an entirely new wardrobe as Black Friday approaches. That’s why we are suggesting a different kind of decluterring this year: that of your digital life!

Apps, social media, subscription... it’s time to review, toss and refresh the pages and content we consume.

After massive boycotts this spring, we are now getting rid of counter-productive influences in 2024:

This is cleanup season.

The diagnosis

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We live in a hyper-connected society, dominated by agents of the big C (capitalism! Shush didn’t mentioned it) with its millions of marketers and advertiser spawns. We are all being influenced by these (more or less obvious) attempts at taking our money, but eventually our time and mental space too!  

It's no secret that we quickly become trapped in a digital bubble that presents us with the same things all day long. But we have the right to evolve, to change our minds and to want to regain a bit of control over it all. Today we suggest you take time for digital mindfulness, to browse through your apps and unsubscribe to things that don’t serve you anymore. We don’t know about you, but we are tired of being pushed to consume continuously without getting much in return. This way, you’ll make space for better influences in our life and gain some control over who you give your time to.

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The action plan

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1rst step: ditch all the accounts that don’t serve you.

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What we target here is anything that only seems to push for useless consumption... fast fashion is not cool and neither is filming Shein hauls every week. Same goes with beauty and make up products. But you can extend it to more than just sustainability requirements: consider unfollowing anyone of any account that made you feel bad about yourself, judge yourself or anything like that. This cleanse is also about mental health and realigning with what type of content you want to be consuming and be exposed to.

Tips to target what could be put to the cleansing court:

• Delete all the shopping apps from your phone, tablet or bookmark bar! This will lessen the temptation to mindlessly scroll through online platforms and end up getting yet another order that you didn’t intend or needed.

• Any brand is a potential offender: Businesses and brands have definitely barged in on social media and know what they are doing. While there's nothing wrong with following a brand that you love and want to keep up to date with, it's important to remain vigilant. Have a look at their latest content and if really brings you something or if it just pushes you to consume. What’s their value to you?

• Influencers: this might be a controversial topic to some but it is pretty straight forward to us. Influencers and content creators is a big box, and pretty much anything can fall under it. Although influencers tend to be a bit more on the brand side since their very role is to influence us into wanting a product or wanting to be a certain way, doing certain things...

• We would recommend doing a good triage here, lifestyle influencers with a focus on fashion can be anywhere between being big C devotes to great people trying to support a different way of engaging with fashion (crafty, sustainable...).  

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As a side note, we believe that there is a strong statement here, because by following someone nowadays, you are not only supporting them but also the value system they promote and adhere to. There is here a powerful tool and social indicator of what people are ready to support and what they want. Social media has become a trend setter, and the digital world has very real impacts IRL.

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Step 2: Give yourself time to rediscover what resonates with you.

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Now that you have space in your virtual life, you can start following accounts and content creators that represent your values and try to bring about a vision of what the world can be by showcasing all their efforts. Luckily for us there are actually a lot of brilliant accounts.

• Using SM for information: younger generations don’t read papers as much anymore. “We are illiterate and don’t know anything about what happens in the world”. Well on the contrary we would argue that we are a bit submerged by all these information and it can be hard to follow-up sometimes. I’m pretty sure most of you already do but don’t hesitate to follow mainstream newspapers that can bring journalistic information to you. But on top of that, you can also follow accounts that focus on specific topics: feminism, sustainability (hello: @voiceireland) and are dedicated to informing on what happens in their field. Independent newspapers can be great too.

• Don’t hesitate to follow accounts that focus on positive news only to lift your spirit in the middle of it all.

• Eco-influencers: who literally pave the way in showcasing how our lives can be just as full of a lot less.

Here are a few examples of accounts that we love in our feed:

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But don’t only take our word for it, ask around for people that your friends might follow. Here’s what people we interviewed are recommending:

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Extra step:

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For the toughest of you, we would also advise to unsubscribe from all unnecessary newsletters and subscriptions (not VOICE’s one obviously). It’s a tedious job but you’ll kill two birds with one stone here: remove some of the painful advertising you get in your email box AND reduce digital pollution that these emails carry with them being sent and sitting in your mailbox.

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