Digital Detox Journal: August

YouTube

Despite not having broken the project’s rules, I did a marathon of YouTube videos about narcissism during this summer holiday. It was almost an hour a day, but the reason is noble. I will publish a playlist on my blog with video suggestions on this topic. Therefore, I needed to select the content for the post.

I think that health professionals should make this concession to the attention economy and have a channel on YouTube, as it is the second most used search engine in the world after Google.

In my case, I write mainly about productivity and quality of life. So, becoming a YouTuber would be like inviting people with alcoholic disorders to the bar to help them with their alcohol addiction.

Giving so much time, information, and money to YouTube doesn’t please me. However, it was worth it. After all, there is something that irritates me even more than this evil platform… narcissism!

TikTok

January free from TikTok! I didn’t watch anything on this social media. I rarely accessed TikTok in the past. I didn’t miss it at all.

Podcasts

Last semester, I had practically stopped listening to podcasts. But this January, I couldn’t resist listening to the last two episodes of the series about Thiago Brennand. So, I broke the detox rules within two hours.

Brennand is a Brazilian millionaire in a powerful family of businessmen, artists, and cultural sponsors. He is accused of violence and sexual abuse against several women. He has already been convicted in some cases and is in prison.

The digital portal of the leading Brazilian newspaper, Uol by Folha de São Paulo, made a podcast about his case, with unpublished audio recorded by one of the victims.

Since one of the episodes talks about the Brennands’ relationship with the arts and museums, I could claim that it was work, but I would be pushing the envelope. I listened because I was really curious.

I don’t know if it’s a Brazilian thing, but the investigative podcasts here are super productions with unique soundtracks, interviews, and everything else.

It’s like those old radio soap operas, like CSI in audio. This makes life difficult for anyone trying to do a digital detox because we can’t stop listening.

Netflix and Streaming

I didn’t watch any series. I watched two films and a documentary. It could have been more, since it was a summer holiday, but I think it’s better this way.

The News

It was almost five hours of reading the news and nearly two hours of watching videos. Therefore, it was seven hours in total. The content was general news, nothing specific to my work or the children’s school.

I followed the rules, but it bothered me that I accessed the news several days and not just one day a week, as was my intention. So, I didn’t win many stars for this item.

Music

I didn’t track music consumption, but I listened a lot this January.

I broke some rules, like wearing headphones when doing chores around the home. The aim of prohibiting headphones during chores is not to be isolated from the surroundings. Therefore, it is a time when I can talk and interact with my husband and children. But I won’t count it as a violation due to the holiday exception. As I stayed with my family for the entire month of January, we had plenty of time to talk and socialise.

I created new playlists on Apple Music and Apple’s classical music app, which replaced Primephonic. For some inexplicable reason, I lost my entire Bach selection. I saved my favourite musics on Apple Classic, but it didn’t register them. I was furious! The app is great, but it has some problems. I will write a post about it.

I’m making some of my playlists public on my Apple Music profile. If you have an Apple account, you can follow me there. If not, samples of the songs can be listened to at the links below:

Middle Ages – Renaissance (Early Classical Music).

Brazil and English (Bilingual Brazilian songs, in English and Portuguese, or translated into English).

This last playlist accompanied our family on these lovely summer holidays, especially on travel roads and tours around Belo Horizonte. The photo below, taken this January in our city, shows a view of the Pampulha Modernist Architectural and Landscape Complex, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. I took this photo from the top of the Big Wheel in the traditional Guanabara Park…

Facebook

I spent twenty minutes on Facebook the entire month of January, checking the Museologia Brasil (Brazil Museology) group. It was way below target. I got a star on this one!

Instagram

I was on Instagram for one hour, checking hotels and restaurants, all within the detox rules. However, I spent 50 minutes watching videos of English teachers who joke about lyrics.

I read English as if it were Portuguese, and I probably understand 98% of what an English or American person says. I still have a little difficulty with English from other countries, but if the person speaks slowly, I understand almost everything, too.

However, for some reason, this doesn’t apply to songs. Maybe it’s because we are almost always distracted when we listen. Or perhaps it’s the instruments. I don’t know why that happens. If the singer’s English is clear, I understand about 60 or 70%. If we’re talking about rap or hip-hop, I probably understand 40% or less.

So, I got into the habit of reading the lyrics while listening to the songs, which is a great way to study languages. While doing my personal productivity project on English, I discovered these teachers on social media who joke with translations.

Some songs break records for foolish lyrics. Apparently, Usher and his friends wanted to be farmers. Josie should return from holiday quickly. Her husband is calling Mrs. Robinson to “talk it over”. School massacres were allowed in the songs of the past. The DJ at some weddings might like SM. Finally, some Brazilians singing in English-ish on talk shows is a spectacle in itself!

There are much worse things than these examples above, but this blog tries to be elegant.

I could claim I was studying English. Let’s be honest here… I was just having a good laugh!

Twitter

Twitter-free January. I didn’t miss this toxic and addictive social media at all!

Conclusion

And this was my first digital detox report. So far, I’ve found it easy to keep most of my rules, but it was summer holidays — so many activities and distractions. We’ll see how things turn out in February as we return to work, and the kids attend school!

YouTube

Unfortunately, the marathon of videos about narcissism continued for almost the entire month of February. But the good news is that I’ve finalised the selection for my narcissism playlist.

It’s within the rules because it’s for the blog post. But I feel saturated with YouTube, and that really doesn’t go with a Digital Detox.

I’ll try to eliminate YouTube consumption in March. Will I succeed?

TikTok

February free from TikTok! I won a star again. I didn’t watch anything on this social media. I rarely accessed TikTok in the past. I didn’t miss it at all.

Podcast

I listened to two and a half hours of podcast episodes in February.

Listening to podcasts didn’t make me happy, on the contrary. So, I was frustrated with myself for capitulating.

The podcast world has some dangerous illusions.

First illusion: listening to podcasts is a good investment of our time. Not always. Perhaps it would be much better to spend this time reading a book than listening to someone speak extemporaneously. I always say to external professionals who want to enrol in my courses at university: “If you have limited time… between reading my book or taking my course, choose to read my book.”

Second, listening to podcasts while doing other activities, such as exercising or doing chores at home, is an excellent use of our time. Brazilians consume a lot of podcasts and generally listen to episodes while commuting. We need to be aware that these are opportunities to spend time with our own thoughts, something essential for our mental health. The smartphone has stolen our time of solitude.

Third (perhaps the most dangerous illusion): We know the hosts of these podcasts intimately. Especially when the podcast is a dialogue where participants speak spontaneously about their lives, ideas, and feelings.

It’s an illusion because what we’re seeing is the public persona of those hosts, but the format contributes to the feeling that we’re sitting with them at a pub table. And like we do with friends and loved ones, we can ignore red flags that the conversation might be fun but isn’t doing us any good.

Does this mean I won’t listen to podcasts anymore in my life? Or, going further, will I never have my podcast?

In 2022, I was very invested in having my podcast. I bought the equipment and started to study the subject. I recorded test vlogs in Portuguese and English to find my voice and ideal tone. The idea is to have a bilingual podcast, via subtitles and transcription.

I convinced my offline husband to join me in a monthly episode series about health, productivity and quality of life. He is also a professor and has never had a profile on any social media. And he is one of the few health professionals I know who is not a workaholic. While Beto is a natural communicator, I needed to learn to speak in public and on video. So, talking to him on my podcast would also be training for the next phase…

Interviews and collaborations. Because of my work, and because the only thing that stops me from reaching people I admire is if they are dead… I have contact with many notorious professors, non-fiction bestseller authors, awarded fiction authors with books that became cinema films, editors, artists, managers, cultural producers, journalists, etc. In Brazil and abroad. So, getting interviewees wouldn’t be difficult.

To give just one example: when a far-right candidate won the presidential elections in Brazil, I spoke out in a text, expressing my deep concern and sadness. I felt crushed. A bestselling fiction author who has received some of the most prominent literary awards in Europe was kind enough to spend his time writing me a message of solidarity, telling me to stay strong and that I was not alone. His message made my day and reminded me that there are kind people in the world.

It is this type of generosity that I have found on my path. Kindness attracts kindness. And the idea would be to repay this kindness to those who agreed to be interviewed on my podcast with high-level episodes that would take the interview to another league. Content focused on a niche intellectual audience.

First, I will start with the fact that the interviews will always be in person. In 1705, Bach walked approximately 350 km on foot to Lübeck to listen to Buxtehude, a composer who influenced him and helped him become who Bach became. Today, we can do the same thing, much faster and safer, travelling infinitely greater distances in the comfort of an aeroplane.

I already do that, in fact. I always try to meet the people who have influenced my intellectual trajectory in person. Whether participating in an event or course with this person or asking them to welcome me for a face-to-face conversation. Do the same, dear reader! You will be surprised at the many “yes” you will receive.

The podcast’s second difference will be questions and insights beyond the trivial. I’ve watched or listened to hundreds, maybe thousands, of interviews in my life. It’s shocking how the questions are usually superficial and repeated, demonstrating that the host doesn’t know the interviewee’s work. They also spend the podcast episode discussing frugality, vulgarity, and uselessness.

Most of the time, it seems like the host didn’t even read what the interviewee wrote. An assistant probably made the questions, which is not my case. Some of these authors not only have I read all of their books, but some books I have read more than once.

I read them in Portuguese and English/Spanish/Italian when the author is a native of these languages. I do that to compare the translations and realize how some translators should be fired from publishers, unfortunately.

Let’s start with the title. It would help if they did not translate a book title word by word. It is necessary to adapt to the cultural context of the country. A book must be transcreated and not simply translated. Several excellent books could be bestsellers in foreign countries with titles and translations adapted to the local culture.

The same applies to covers. Boring fonts and colours and depressed pictures will not sell well in a bright sunny tropical country like mine. Unfortunately, Brazilians also judge a book by its cover. If this kind of tasteless cover becomes a bestseller around here, it’s a pure stroke of luck.

Third, my episodes will be several hours long. In addition to the interview, I will provide biographical contextualisation, informative addenda, reflections on the responses, and comments from guests specialising in the author or that topic.

And since the interview is in person, I can add lovely photos of the author’s context throughout the episode’s transcript (office, studio, museum, university, etc.). It will have transcription, subtitles (English/Portuguese) and sign language for people with disabilities.

My podcast will be hosted on my website and audio platforms, not on these attention economy and surveillance capitalism social media. However, regarding collaboration, I could make some concessions and accept the invitations I previously refused. To date, I have only agreed to participate in academic social media events. And I don’t even show my face when I have the option.

I was going all out with this podcast project… until January 8, 2023 (the invasion of Congress in Brasilia). This failed coup attempt, among other things in recent years, made me understand that people are much more out of control than I imagined. And that the world is becoming increasingly narcissistic and unpredictable.

And more than that: Aren’t the privacy problems that my academic career causes me enough? Do I want my lovely readers to spend time listening to me or reading my texts? Do I want you to establish this kind of emotional connection with me? Is it healthy for you and me? Wouldn’t it be better to publish these interviews that I want to do transcribed into blog posts instead of a podcast?

Anyway… I’m rethinking podcasts. It doesn’t mean that I won’t listen anymore, nor that I won’t have my podcast. It means that all the above needs to be taken into consideration. Sometimes, I’m like a locomotive speeding towards my goals. I think it’s prudent to reduce speed now: “Slow down, Ana.” I told myself.

This Digital Detox year will help me cool down, reduce emotional thinking and reflect on this issue more rationally and less passionately.

Hence, I am annoyed that I didn’t resist and stopped consuming podcasts this month.

The secret to behaving and following the rules during a Digital Detox is actually simple: not looking. So, to avoid making my mistake, unfollow the podcasts you liked in the past and delete your viewing history. This way, the algorithm won’t tempt you with new episodes and their clickbait titles.

If we distract ourselves with more productive things and creative leisure in face-to-face life, the craving for consuming digital content will fade over time. Out of sight, out of mind.

In March, you have my word that I will be a good girl and not fall into this trap again. I’ll be over this one.

Netflix and Streaming

I watched three films this month, one at the cinema. Everything was within the detox rules. And they were children’s films with our kids.

We recently watched the film Rio, both 1 and 2. The third is about to be released. It is impressive how these movies stereotypically present the image of Brazil. This is evident not only in cartoons but also in articles in the international press.

The most worrying thing is that a recent survey showed that decision-makers, such as diplomats and journalists specialising in international relations, also cultivate this clichéd view of Brazil.

For many foreigners, probably the majority, Brazil is synonymous with the Amazon, carnival, football, indigenous peoples, wild animals, the beach, happy people celebrating and Rio.

I want to write a post about the cliché view that the world has of Rio and Brazil. But I don’t resist giving you some spoilers in this diary right now. I’m shocked!

Now look at our cognitive dissonance, especially that faced by our kids, watching these cliché films about Brazil…

The Amazon

We have never been to the Amazon. It is a 7-hour flight from our city, Belo Horizonte (BH).

In our state, Minas Gerais (MG), we have the Atlantic Forest, which is also beautiful and lavish. But it’s not the Amazon. Many people take photos of our rainforest in MG and go abroad, saying they visited the Amazon. It’s a mistake. Brazil has several biomes.

I want to visit the Amazon someday, but I’ll probably only risk doing it when our children are older and no longer depend on us. It is an extremely dangerous and wild place.

The Amazon forest is probably as exotic to me as it is to the foreign reader following this blog.

Carnival

Brazil’s Carnival is one of the biggest in the world. It takes place on weekends in January and February. The festivities peak during the Carnival National Holiday (5 days in February).

I selected some short videos (links above) to try to explain to my foreign reader, in 15 minutes, what are the different types of Carnival that take place simultaneously here during this time:

Carnival Balls: Luxurious balls promoted by clubs, resorts, and hotels. Brazilian versions of the MET Gala, so to speak.

Club Parties: Nightclub-style parties like Ibiza, Mykonos, Cancun, LA, London, etc. Brands sponsor these parties, which feature famous singers, international DJs, artists and supermodels like Gisele. They can occur in nightclubs or VIP areas (camarotes) overlooking the samba school parades.

Carnival Parade: This big parade competition happens in some Brazilian cities. Rio is the most extravagant and famous one. Every year, each community group (called samba school) chooses a theme for their parade. This theme guides the floats, costumes, and the message conveyed through music. Schools compete against each other for the best parade award. This BBC video shows a British woman who managed to be one of the muses at Rio’s parade.

Street Parades and Parties: These street groups (blocos), with musicians and dancers, promote parties and parades with various target audiences and themes: vintage marchinhas (old traditional samba), Brazilian folklore, Afro-Brazilian religions, LGBTQ+, etc. Some specific blocos focus on older people or children.

I enjoy samba a lot. Especially traditional samba music and delicate choreography, like this sweet girl in this video. I take Brazilian dance classes at my gym, and I love dancing. It’s my favourite physical activity after hiking.

So, what’s my preferred Carnival party? None of the options I listed above. Except for costume parties at my school when I was a small child, I have never attended a Carnival. Neither does anyone in my family.

I am highly introspective. Drunk crowds, excessive lights, and loud music make me feel unprotected, insecure, and confused. I freeze and get terrified in this kind of overcrowded environment. So, I’ve never been to a pop music concert in my life, nor any big dancing club, street party or Carnival. Neither in Brazil nor abroad.

And the culture of Carnival doesn’t resonate with me. It’s a culture with serious problems in my opinion. I totally respect people who love Carnival. Long live tolerance! But Carnival is not for me.

Football (or soccer, for my dear US readers)

Football is a national passion in Brazil. This video here speaks more than a thousand words. I won’t translate what they’re shouting, but it alternates between religious epiphanies (Oh my God!) and very dirty language. They cheer for our team, Atlético Mineiro (Atletic from Minas Gerais), playing against the most famous Rio’s team, Flamengo.

Except for big events, like World Cup games with Brazil’s team, we don’t watch any sport here at home. We have severe ethical reservations about how professional sport is conducted in contemporary times—a topic for a future post.

Our children have never been in a stadium to watch a football match or any other professional sport. They attend a sports school whose philosophy is to focus on health and developing soft skills, not on competitiveness.

Despite being developed by Brazilian Olympic medallists, this sports school’s methodology does not involve competitions. Kids don’t win medals. They get a passport where beautiful stickers are placed as they level up. In other words, they are competing with themselves, not with others.

The levels contemplate not only the techniques of the sport but the character achievements when practising it: respect, honesty, loyalty, simplicity, generosity, courage, etc.

Brazilian Indigenous People

I am a descendant of Brazilian indigenous, but I never met these relatives of mine who were part of the original peoples. They came from generations before me and were no longer alive when I was born.

I’ve never been to an indigenous tribe in my life. I’ve met very few indigenous people to date, to be honest. And I don’t even remember speaking to an indigenous person who wasn’t acculturated to urban life.

I would like to have the opportunity to meet an indigenous Brazilian who maintains some of their customs or who knows how to speak a native Brazilian language. I’m culturally and sociologically curious about it, of course.

I studied Tupi-Guaraní for a while, but I didn’t become fluent. It is a complex language, with the addition of words to form new ones, similar to German.

Wild Animals

No wild animals are walking the streets around here, people! This is the most bizarre stereotype I have heard out there. Brazilians go to the zoo to see animals like macaws and jaguars.

In a city like Belo Horizonte, you can mostly find small animals, like the very tiny monkeys living in the big trees. They are called micos. The northern countries have squirrels; we have micos. They are also adorable and about the same size.

When a wild animal appears in a city here, it becomes news on TV, just like the circus lion that wandered through an Italian town.

The Beach

I think the ocean is one of nature’s most powerful and fantastic forces. I am enchanted by beaches, especially when they are deserted and paradisical. But I wouldn’t say I like urban beaches, because they are crowded. And as I said, crowds make me dizzy.

I like listening to the sea waves, reading and drinking coconut water. Or to walk along the shore admiring nature. To do this, we need to go to the beaches further away from the big cities.

But beach vacations are not our priority. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve felt the sand or seawater.

My children have never been to a beach in their lives. Our state, Minas Gerais, has many historic cities and natural parks but is not on the coast.

When our kids become old enough to remember this moment, we will take them on a plane ride and show them the ocean. It will be exciting!

Rio de Janeiro

For me, Rio is synonymous with museums, archives, libraries, bookstores, fantastic restaurants, centuries-old confectionary, craft shops and fairs, international congresses, blockbuster exhibitions, botanical gardens, high-tech ICT research centres, etc.

I’m fascinated by looking at Copacabana beach… from a distance. I like to sip a cold drink from the top of a hotel terrace, admiring the ocean.

I’ve visited Rio several times over the past two decades, including last year. But the last time I stepped on the sand of a beach in Rio was during our honeymoon in 2006. Our tourism in Rio is predominantly intellectual, cultural and urban.

A glimpse of “my” Rio in some photos…

The News

I spent 14 hours this month reading or watching the news. Six hours longer than allowed by detox rules.

I definitely didn’t get any stars here. But in my defence, some pretty bombastic things have happened this month. I won’t comment on everything; I will comment on three main issues.

A video was released in our press of a meeting in which our former ultra-rightwing president openly discussed undemocratic acts with his ministers and army generals, among other nonsensical. How do you do Digital Detox in the middle of a Tropical Water(melon)gate?

Regarding Brazil’s political scandals, the official House of Cards account once tweeted: “It’s hard to compete.” Someone responded that Netflix had to make a Brazilian spin-off of the show. And Netflix Brazil’s official Twitter responded: “I would even try, but if I brought together 20 award-winning screenwriters, I wouldn’t get better than this…”

Who needs House of Cards when you have Brazilian news?

I also spent much time reading about the repercussions of my city’s Carnival in the national and international press. BH has become one of the main places for street parties in Brazil.

More than 500 Carnival blocos (blocks, Carnival groups of dancers and musicians) were registered, and around 5.5 million people were expected this year.

Although this number is overestimated, BH has been full of Brazilian and foreign tourists since the end of January. A Tower of Babel of accents and languages on the streets (I love that part, by the way!). And the parties here had repercussions in the press and on social media.

In my opinion, the articles and videos also described a cliché BH. And that’s why I want to start talking more about Brazil and showing more of my life on my blog in English.

Finally, I also spent some time reading the news about the war and the Brazilian president’s speeches about Israel and Gaza. And the distortions of these statements for war purposes. I will not focus my comments on the speeches because my opinion is complex. I will comment on what I think about the ethics of war.

It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, we still have wars. Even more shocking is the fact that these wars do not respect the minimum principles of human rights, saving civilians. Especially if these civilians are children, women, people with disabilities, older, sick, injured or hungry people. It doesn’t matter which side these people belong to. Honourable soldiers give their lives to save and protect the defenceless. Period.

Men who use their power or physical strength to dominate, torture, kidnap, exterminate or hurt children, women, and other fragile and innocent people are cowards, sick, inhumane, worthless, characterless, evil scoundrels. I’m being euphemistic here.

I want to scream and curse. I want to cry. Actually, I burst into tears because of the war news this month involving extreme hunger, orphans and children being amputated without anaesthesia.

This is all insanity. These are heinous war crimes that will go down in the books of the future as deplorable chapters in the history of humanity. I have avoided reading news about wars because all of this really revolts me.

This Digital Detox can significantly help because I intend to consume only the minimum of these subjects to stay current. But this month, unfortunately, I couldn’t resist, and the Detox was compromised.

Music 

I listened to a lot of music within the detox rules this February. 

I’ve made two new public playlists available on my Apple Music profile. If you have Apple Music, you can follow me there. If you don’t have it, you can access the playlists at the links below and listen to a preview: 

Baroque: There is still some music that I couldn’t insert because the Apple Classic app gave me an error. Next week, I’ll add the rest.

Reflections: A selection of songs that make me reflect on life.

Facebook

I spent less than fifteen minutes on Facebook throughout February, checking the Museologia Brasil (Brazil Museology) group. It was even better than January. I got a big star on this one!

Instagram

I was on Instagram for less than a half hour, all within the detox rules. Another star!

Twitter

I spent forty minutes on Twitter this month, much longer than I would have liked, but the temptation was great.

There is a huge international discussion criticizing universities’ Publish or Perish culture, and presenting new proposals for evaluating academic production. Some colleagues shared tweets from notorious professors on a Productivism forum.

If I had just focused on those tweets, I would have spent about 5 minutes on Twitter this month. But the disobedient person here clicked on the hashtag #PublishOrPerish

For what? I was captured by a sequence of hilarious memes and tweets, like this video of this comedian doctor making fun of the billion-dollar mega-industry of scientific publications.

By the way, what he jokingly suggests in the video has been happening in Brazil for decades. Here, the most highly regarded Brazilian scientific journals are entirely free. Nobody pays anything to read or publish because these magazines are maintained by the leading Brazilian universities, which are also public and free of charge.

After all (to end this detox diary with yet another wrong stereotype about Brazil), we are a “communist” country!

A video recently went viral of a former professor donating 1 billion dollars to an American university in the Bronx, NY. In the video, she tells the auditorium packed with students that from now on, they will no longer have to pay tuition. And the students celebrate wildly, freaking out with happiness.

The comment here in Brazil was: “Hundreds of American college students feel what millions of Brazilians feel when they enter our best universities.”

Jokes aside, I cried watching the video. It is adorable and moving. I want to squeeze, hug and kiss this “communist” old lady!

Conclusion

And this was my second digital detox diary. I think it’s going well, although it was harder than January. And I broke the rules more, unfortunately. Let’s see if I get back on track in March!

YouTube

“I’ll try to eliminate YouTube consumption in March. Will I succeed?”

This is how I finished my last digital detox diary on YouTube. Unfortunately, the answer is no.

I concluded that YouTube is in absolutely everything in my life. Lectures about museums, videos from my Libras course (Brazilian sign language), software tutorials, processes for complying with university protocols, etc. YouTube is in all of this.

Realising quitting YouTube would not be possible, I followed the Digital Detox rules and went further. I asked myself: what can I get out of my life?

So, I cut something that probably takes up the majority of my YouTube consumption outside of videos about narcissism: news.

I usually looked at the BBC, DW, The Guardian, The NYT, Nexo, Uol, etc. channels whenever I checked the online news.

Therefore, the goal for March was not to watch any newspaper videos on YouTube but to prioritise reading the articles. I achieved my goal, and the big gain was in terms of mental health.

For example, it’s one thing to read about wars and another to watch videos about them. In this sense, the detox was great for me.

But was it difficult? Extremely hard. I’m not going to lie… I discovered that I’m addicted to news on YouTube. I realised this because of my anxiety about not being able to click on any of these videos.

The goal remains in April. We cure addiction by overcoming the abstinence phase. Then, with a sober mind, I’ll see if I can establish a healthier relationship with the news on this evil platform.

TikTok

March free from TikTok! I won a star again. I didn’t watch anything on this social media, which I rarely accessed in the past. I didn’t miss it at all.

Podcast

March free from podcasts. I didn’t watch any episodes this month. I won my star over this one!

Netflix and Streaming

March without watching series or films. I only watched one documentary. So, I consumed much less than what the detox allowed.

The News

I read 5 hours and 40 minutes of news this month. Two hours less than the goal I set for detox.

It was difficult because Tropical Water(melon)gate launched several spicy seasons, with the testimony of former army commanders in the federal police, who implicated our ex-president in the plots for an attempted coup last year.

Furthermore, as The New York Times reported, at the risk of arrest, upon handing over his passport to the federal police, the coward ex-presidente took shelter for two days in the Hungarian embassy in an apparent bid for asylum.

And the story gets more complicated with each passing day. Newspapers were buzzing with news detailing this plot twist. Unbelievable, folks!!! And here I am without being able to read or watch everything about this. Oh, heavens, how curious!

Finally, as I planned to do the Digital Detox this year, I did not renew my subscription to two of the newspapers I usually read, one being The New York Times.

However, the NYT did so well this month that I renewed my annual subscription this March to support high-quality journalism.

Music

I’m almost ready to post my series on Narcissism. So, to celebrate, today I’m making a new temporary playlist about Narcissism available on my public Apple Music profile.

It’s undoubtedly the most “sophisticated”, “elegant”, and “romantic” playlist I’ve ever released in my life! #irony

It will become clear why I selected these songs when I publish two posts in which I talk about the objectification of women and Latinas and the trivialisation of narcissistic behaviours in contemporary music.

Some songs on the list have a nice beat and melody, and I like some singers on that list, too. But while listening to their album, I thought, “Wow, do I understand correctly what this person is singing here?” So I went to read the lyrics.

No, dear readers. It was much worse than I thought. I’m fluent, but I lacked the “technical vocabulary” to grasp those “masterpieces” of musical literature.

I discovered some songs by capturing them on Shazam in places I was in (an iPhone music recognition app). I was very curious to read the lyrics carefully later.

Finally, I also included some classics from the past millennium. Today, I interpret them from a different perspective.

Every Breath You Take, for example. It’s a psychopathic, narcissistic stalker thing. Shame on you, Sting! Oh, the teenager who still lives somewhere inside me loved this song… Shame on us!

Moving on, we listened to more “analogue” music this month. I went with my husband to the excellent openings of two seasons: Philharmonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais and 415 Orchestra.

Both concerts had a packed audience, which made me very happy.

In the case of the Philharmonic, I went to the website an hour after ticket sales started, and the best seats were already sold out. I bought advance tickets to other concerts to take them next time.

For the purposes of this detox diary, it is worth recording some observations about cell phone use at these two events.

The Philharmonic in my city, Belo Horizonte, is an international-standard Brazilian orchestra with musicians worldwide. It performs in a beautiful auditorium with professional acoustics, the Minas Gerais Hall (the name of our State).

The opening of the 2024 season had the Pillars of German Opera as its repertoire, performing some instrumental pieces by composers such as Mozart, Gluck, Weber, Beethoven, Wagner, and Strauss.

The printed program said that the electronics should be forgotten when the first note sounded. But photographs and videos were allowed before and after. It also asked that we tag the Philharmonic.

This blogger recorded the image below during the break when the conductor talked informally with the audience.

What caught my attention the most was that practically no one was holding a cell phone. I noticed a guy checking his messages before the concert started, and that was it. That’s impressive! Very good, in fact. An educated public that also knows how to appreciate the present moment.

The second opening of the season was for the 415 Orchestra. They have a partner chorus. What distinguishes them is their baroque instruments, each meticulously handcrafted using ancient materials and techniques. This orchestra, much like those of the past, is delightfully compact.

What’s truly remarkable is their dedication to preserving the authenticity of baroque music. Instruments such as the spinet, wooden recorder, baroque guitar, and theorbo (long-neck lute), all part of the original baroque ensemble, are still in use.

This commitment to tradition is a refreshing departure from the common practice of replacing such instruments with modern versions in classical music today. Their choice of smaller auditoriums further enhances the listener’s experience, allowing for the appreciation of these more delicate sounds.

All this makes this orchestra’s music closer to the experience performed by composers of the ancient period.

The opening concert had Vivaldi’s Glória as its repertoire. I got emotional. Il prete rosso, in sexy and charming Venice, probably never envisioned his music being performed in the auditorium of a Brazilian public library on the other side of the world so long later.

At the beginning of the presentation, the conductor kindly asked us to keep our cell phones turned off. But he said they would repeat one of the compositions at the concert’s end. He also noted that recordings and photographs were very welcome at this time. He then asked everyone to tag the orchestra on their social media.

Before and after the show, and especially when it was time for the encore, the entire audience took photos or films. And me, too. I don’t have social media, but my record is below.

In this instance, I found it encouraging that many people had their cell phones ready. I interpreted this as a collective effort to promote classical music. This genre is, unfortunately, losing ground to songs with more “complex” and “sophisticated” lyrics, like the ones I listed in the Narcissism playlist. #irony

Facebook

I spent 35 minutes on Facebook in March, checking the Museologia Brasil (Brazil Museology) group. Less than the Detox goal.

This month, I also joined a private group of web developers for one of the WordPress themes I use. I had a quick look, but I should definitely explore the group more in April.

There are a lot of exciting things about Artificial Intelligence in the posts. The guys there made me feel outdated.

I will keep the goal of a maximum of 20 minutes weekly. Let’s see if it works.

Instagram

I was on Instagram for less than half an hour, and all of my activities were within the detox rules (restaurants, hotels, etc.). Another star!

Twitter

In March, I spent 20 minutes on Twitter reading about the exposé repercussions of an international influencer with millions of followers on social media.

I only knew this influencer by name until then, so I watched a few minutes of his videos. What I saw in this short time was very worrying. Red flags were visible there.

According to an article in The New York Magazine, he was caught living off appearances in his academic career and engaging in sexist, manipulative and abusive behaviour in his private life.

The influencer’s private and professional life is intricately linked to his public persona. In this case, his fame and wealth were built on content like productivity, lifestyle, mental health and so on.

All of us who write about these subjects are constantly watched by people in our face-to-face world. Especially those who live with us intimately. And if we don’t walk the talk, this will come to light one day.

However, given its massive reach, the most alarming aspect of this influencer’s case is his public channels: his podcast promotes pseudoscience and profits from advertisements for dubious products.

He frequently mentions the name of the renowned academic institution he belongs to, which acts as an indirect endorsement of his words.

I conclude from these 20 minutes on Twitter that, for a large part of this man’s followers, nothing that he may have done wrong matters. On the contrary, they violently attacked the reporter with misogynistic and ad hominem arguments.

Some even praised the influencer’s “productivity” in managing five girlfriends, who didn’t know about each other’s existence.

Well, I’m going to tell you what takes a lot more work than cell phone messages and sporadic sexual encounters with several women at the same time…

Maintain a long-term marriage that is not a facade but genuinely happy — having quality time for the couple and their children in a joyful, intellectually stimulating, emotionally healthy and spiritually enriching family environment.

This is even more true if both parents have successful careers in highly competitive areas. It does require hard work and complex productivity systems to make it happen!

This type of absurd bullying towards the reporter on Twitter shows very well the profile of this guy’s fan base: a mass of uncritical people with no moral compass.

And that’s why I’m not on social media anymore. It’s a highly toxic environment, full of narcissists and psychopaths.

Also, it is because of this type of influencer without coherence, who lives a double life, that I am also doing this Digital Detox.

Reading the article and the comments on Twitter, I felt that I live not just in another country but another world. A world with other rules, values, behaviours, expectations, and ambitions. A world populated by another type of human being, much more noble and empathetic. In short, it’s almost another planet!

Even though I broke the Detox rules, I don’t regret it. It was good to see how my life choices are going in the right direction.

Conclusion

March was better than February. I met all the Digital Detox goals except Twitter, so I was happy.

It was a much more difficult month, too, but it’s going well. Let’s move on!

There are many other things I would like to share in this diary, but I need to stop here. The little time I have available to dedicate to the blog is taken up with the redesign of the platform and the preparation of the series on Narcissism.

I’m loving all of this, the return of blog posts. I miss clicking the publish button on this platform.

YouTube

I watched an hour and a half of YouTube outside the Detox rules in April.

Most were comedy videos, like the stand-up of a European who lives in Brazil. He jokes about the culture shock in a very clever and entertaining way.

One of the videos matches the vibe of Detox: Anti Social – A Modern Dating Horror Story. It has some spicy jokes but nothing inelegant. Just don’t watch it with children around.

I broke the Detox rules, I know. But I laughed a lot!

TikTok

Fourth month without wasting time browsing TikTok!

Podcasts

In April, I spent almost 5 hours watching different podcasts.

The goal was not simply to entertain me. I listened to these clips to reflect on podcasts related to Detox itself and the consumption/production of digital content.

However, I will count these hours as breaking the Detox rules because I could have postponed this until next year. I confess I didn’t do it because I was curious, mainly due to recent events.

Many of the clips were from the podcast of a famous American influencer and professor who discusses productivity, mental health, and well-being. I haven’t listened to this podcaster before the scandal but commented about him in the March Detox Diary (Twitter item).

I rarely mention specific names on this blog. Brazilians, in general, are more subtle when talking about other people, and this suits my personality, too.

But I am making an exception in some cases of highly public figures with whom I have no relationship, in person or online. This includes some influencers, Big Tech CEOs, politicians, etc. And the reasons are simple: the case is already super public and can give rise to didactic reflections for us.

According to an article from New York Magazine, this podcaster was caught acting unethically in his personal, professional and social relationships.

As I watched videos on this topic, the algorithm suggested other controversial videos from other famous podcasters. Because that’s how YouTube works, it radicalises to maintain engagement.

To give you an idea, the algorithm brought me a video from another podcaster even more famous than this professor, with almost 17 million followers. In this video, the podcaster defended his “Brazilian clone”, which is in favour of people’s right to be “anti-Jewish”, as well as in favour of the legalisation of the Nazi party in my country. Yes, you read correctly.

If these are the things these people say on a podcast, imagine what goes through their heads. I watched so many absurdities that I don’t even dare to reproduce here.

It is relationships full of love that bring us true happiness, make our bodies healthier, and make our existence more meaningful. Not “protocols of this or that.” Productivity should be a path of wisdom to achieve the good life.

Therefore, this exposé from the podcaster should awaken us more compassion than anger. Because in the name of fortune, fame, status, followers, a toned body and sex with multiple women, he sacrificed not only his academic credibility but mainly what matters most in life: relationships and the people who loved him. Be this love eros, philia, storge or agape.

That podcaster and many of his followers probably don’t care about any of this. But even this neglect is worthy of our empathy. Moral and spiritual misery is a poverty that is much more difficult to overcome than the lack of money.

In my opinion, the best analysis of this case was that of Doctor Ramani Durvasula. I have no words to describe how much I loved her video.

Doctor Ramani explained how being smart is not a virtue. She wonders when we started to consider being smart on the same hierarchical level as being kind, respectful, warm, patient, agreeable, etc. Empathy is an example of genuine virtue, not simply being smart.

It’s easier to be smart than to be ethical. Regarding productivity, soft skills will become essential daily, especially with the Artificial Intelligence revolution. The more computers take on tasks that humans previously did, the more we will value the ability to be… human!

Ramani also makes a series of critical reflections on the podcaster’s exposé, which is helpful for our relationships at university, too, if you are an academic like me. Watch the video. It’s worth every second!

Anyway, after everything I’ve watched this month about podcasts, I could summarise my feelings in two: confusion and cognitive dissonance. This is the price for capitulating to addiction and disobeying my Detox purposes.

At least I reflected a lot. I will wait for the end of Detox to mature my opinion on how to consume podcasts healthily.

The goal for the next few months is to eliminate podcast consumption, as I did in March.

Netflix and Streaming

I watched Kung Fu Panda 1 with our children because we plan to watch movie four at the cinema. It’s one of my favourite animations. But 16 years after its release, I found the film a little fat-shaming!

Pandas are chubby by nature; a chubby panda is a healthy panda. The film could have focused on the panda’s lack of fitness rather than his appearance and the food craving itself. The panda is bullied throughout the entire film for being fat, even when he becomes the warrior dragon!

It’s interesting how quickly the world is changing, and certain previously overlooked things are now considered politically incorrect. That’s the case here. But I still love this animation. It has some interesting lessons for children of all ages, including those over 40.

We could see behind the scenes the process of creating this film at the DreamWorks exhibition at CCBB, a network of museums and cultural spaces financed by the Bank of Brazil in several Brazilian capitals. I visited the exhibition in Belo Horizonte and Rio.

It was an incredible exhibit featuring clay statues of the characters, draft storyboards, and the digital technology behind the films. 

According to The Art Newspaper ranking, this exhibition at CCBB Belo Horizonte was the world’s second-most-visited art exhibition in 2019, just after the same show at CCBB Rio, which took first place.

Also, according to this ranking, last year, the CCBB Belo Horizonte was the most visited art museum in Latin America, ranking 41st in the world, while the CCBB Rio de Janeiro ranked 46th. Bravo to both!

I didn’t watch any documentaries but couldn’t resist the series this time.

When my husband arrived in the living room, I was watching Sex and the City, which is now available on Netflix Brazil. He said, “Are you going to ruin your Digital Detox with this?”

I laughed and agreed but was curious to see the series again two decades later. I didn’t break the Detox rules because I can watch up to two hours of series per month. And there went all my credits with this nostalgia.

The stories are boring, and Carrie’s column, which she narrates throughout the episodes, is full of teenage clichés. Not even watching her write about sex, which should be the second most fun thing after having sex in NY, seemed interesting to me.

I think sex is a crucial topic for our mental health, productivity, and happiness. It is generally approached very immaturely in cinema, series, and on social media, all infested with Carries. Should I write more about sex here?

My husband once warned me: “Ana, remember that your sex life is my sex life too.” In this thread, my editor owns half of the copyright to my stories. And therefore, he has veto power. I’ll try to negotiate with my offline lover, who knows…

Silly jokes aside, Ana, in her forties, was trying to understand Ana, in her twenties, watching Sex and the City. The sitcom is terrible. The women are futile, and the men are arrogant, womanisers, and unrefined.

And if there were just me and Mr. Big on a desert island, I would die a virgin. Oh, and he’s a narc!

The only cool things I noticed about the show were the New York City and Carrie being a writer. I love writing, and I love New York.

NY was the first international trip I took in my life. I travelled with friends from college, which generated some correlation with the series then.

It is one of my favourite cities in the world. I love NY’s architecture, urban planning, museums, art galleries, libraries, parks, and art supply stores.

I returned to New York many years later, and it was incredible. I hope to come back again. It is a cosmopolitan city with a vibrant cultural life and people from all over the world. 

While travelling there, I always try to wear a T-shirt or pin from Brazil. As a Brazilian, I felt very welcome in New York…

The News

I consumed almost six hours of news in April, two hours less than the eight allowed by Detox rules. I was happy with my resistance, even though there were many temptations.

Again, I haven’t seen any news videos on YouTube. My heart is broken by the suffering of innocent Israelis and Palestinians in this criminal and insane war. So, not seeing videos of all this was, again, a positive part of Detox.

But this month, I did something I hadn’t done in many months: I watched half an hour of news on television. So vintage!

I wanted to see how the biggest news channel in Brazil was publicising the Elon Musk vs. Alexandre de Moraes case. I explain the situation better later in this post, in the Twitter section.

It was very, very, very difficult to do the Detox from News this month because the Tropical Water(melon)gate is getting more out of control every day!

Music

I listened to a lot of music within the Detox Rules this April.

Today, I published another playlist – Travel – on my Apple Music profile. These songs talk about travelling or remind me of trips we took.

In March, summer says goodbye to Brazil with lots of tropical rain. April is autumn, and the dry period begins. The temperature is mild, the sun is golden, and the weather is perfect for weekend trips.

A curiosity about the first song on the playlist, Orinoco Flow (Sail away): Orinoco is the name of a music studio and one of Latin America’s most important rivers.

The Orinoco does not meander through Brazil but feeds the waters of the Amazon River.

I hope you enjoy listening to the songs on this new playlist.

Facebook

This month, I spent 50 minutes on Facebook interacting in the museology, web development, and SEO groups. I managed to stay within the Detox rules.

Instagram

I spent less than half an hour on Instagram in April, all under the Detox rules (restaurants, stores, hotels, etc.). Another star!

Twitter

Not accessing Twitter this month was the most challenging part of this Detox so far. It required a lot of self-control, and I will explain why.

This man also deserves to be publicly criticised, so let’s go…

Elon Musk doesn’t care about the censorship of dictatorships with which he does business, such as Saudi Arabia and China. But he decided to fuel the fire of political polarisation in my country, which is dangerous for us.

Musk used his Twitter account to say that freedom of expression is not guaranteed in Brazil and to spread fake news.

The first point is to clarify for my foreign readers that this is untrue. We have very civilised legislation regarding hate speech.

Verbal aggression can have consequences as serious as physical aggression against another human being. And if you incite others to commit a crime, you are also a criminal. Apology for coups d’état, racism, xenophobia, Nazism, gender or sexual orientation prejudice: these are all crimes in my country.

This video I showed about the podcaster defending the legalisation of the Nazi party shouldn’t even be on air. That’s an outrage. But YouTube doesn’t think so, and unfortunately, this trash can be accessed here in my country.

The right to freedom of expression is not absolute. It is subordinate to other rights, such as human rights and democracy. Freedom of expression is not unrestricted. In this sense, Brazilian legislation is advanced and not censorship.

This prioritisation of freedom of expression to the detriment of other rights is a very peculiar view of the USA, where Twitter is headquartered. This vision does not match Brazilian thinking or that of many European countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Portugal, etc.

And this mistaken view is contributing to the impunity of a completely insane man who instigated people to attack American democracy. And the invasion of the Capitol inspired the invasion of Brasilia. Therefore, what happens there has consequences in other nations.

And now this insane man is in danger of becoming president again. The USA is a country that has so many wonderful things and is home to so many good people. They don’t deserve a horrible president like that again. The USA should update legislation in this regard and also regulate social networks.

Regarding this issue, our minister Alexandre de Moraes recently said at an event in London:

“Big techs say exactly that: that they are big deposits. There’s no problem. If you have a warehouse in real life, you rent the warehouse, and the person who rented it makes it a cocaine laboratory, you have no responsibility for that; you didn’t know. Now, if you find out and make an amendment to the contract to earn 10% of the cocaine sales, in the real world, you have to be held responsible. No one disagrees with that. In the virtual world, you cannot be held responsible if you are simply a repository of articles and videos. Now, if you monetise this and set your algorithms to prioritise this news, then you are like the person earning 10% of cocaine.”

I completely agree with this reasoning and say more: if the “workers” (the actual “products”) of these “virtual factories” that drive the attention economy are in other countries, like Brazil, big techs should pay taxes in these countries, too, and respect local legislation.

After all, what these companies and their greedy emperors are doing is imperialism via platform power.

We have already a very advanced Brazilian law on the Web for ten years: the Internet Civil Rights Framework. But now we need to go even further and regulate social media urgently! This is not censorship. This is fighting virtual barbarism.

After making these initial clarifications, let’s move on to the month’s controversy.

Elon Musk, on his Twitter account, attacked our minister of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the processes involving the attempted coup in Brasilia on January 8, 2023.

In these processes under his command, some Twitter accounts were blocked at the request of the Brazilian justice system. And Musk threatened to violate the blockade.

On his Twitter, Musk accused Brazil of censorship, compared minister Alexandre de Moraes to Darth Vader (a very consistent and mature argument, by the way! #irony), as well as threatening to take Twitter away from Brazil (Please prove to us that you are really bold and do this!!!!).

Furthermore, he tweeted fake news that Moraes had links with the current government, which is left-wing, but he has always been aligned with our right-wing politicians! This is public and notorious in Brazil. I don’t think Musk was uninformed. I think he did it on purpose.

In response to the attack, Moraes included Elon Musk as being investigated in the investigation into anti-democratic digital militias in Brazil. The Attorney General’s Office called on Brazilian Twitter employees to give a statement to the Federal Police. The Federal Public Defender’s Office filed a request for Twitter to be ordered to pay compensation worth 1 billion reais for collective moral damage and social damage caused to Brazil.

Regarding Elon Musk’s speeches, Brazilian journalists (including those on the right, it should be noted) wrote things like: “Elon Musk urges Brazil to prove that it is not a banana republic”.

Except for the radical far right and the ignorant who admire Elon Musk as an “entrepreneur”, no one intelligent here, left or right, sided with him.

The accounts of Brazilian journalists and influencers must have been buzzing with this story on Twitter. I really wanted to go in there to look, but I bravely resisted.

That’s the advantage of keeping a public diary of your Detox. You have social pressure to stick to your goals.

To conclude, I don’t know if Elon Musk is insane, a toddler, or a monster—probably all three at once.

Memes about the case said that Moraes had confiscated his passport and the key to the SpaceX rocket and forbade Musk from leaving the planet. I disagree with these measures: I would love for him to live on Mars!

Conclusion

It was a challenging month for my Digital Detox. It’s getting harder every month. I hope to get back on track in May. No one said it would be easy.

For those who decided to accompany me on this Digital Detox Project, let’s move on. Never give up!

YouTube

I broke the rules in almost four hours this month. Most of the videos were about Jordan Peterson. He is coming to give lectures in Brazil. Tickets are costly and already sold out, with a waiting list.

As he is a famous figure in the world of productivity, adored by the far-right here, I was curious to watch a documentary or panoramic video that would give me a general introduction to this author.

But I found satirical videos about him and clips of lectures with absurd speeches by the man. And there went hours of my life. That’s what YouTube does to us: it seduces us by shock.

And this man’s videos are a mess:

The climate is everywhere, patriarchy is a myth, male domination, predatory aggression, commanding respect like a wild animal, becoming a monster, acquiring the ability to be dangerous and cruel, mapping hierarchies of environments, tracking relative status, dopamine from being the leader of the tribe, cave time wisdom, analysing Disney cartoons as if it were a “serious” thing, women (supposedly) wanting “feminine” men because use contraceptives, men furiously fighting each other like chimpanzees fighting over a banana, stand up straight to be combative like an alpha lobster, beta lobsters taking antidepressants improve social climbing…

I was shocked by what I saw on YouTube and thought, “Are these lines out of context? Does this man write what he says?”

So, I went to listen to his audio book sample. In the sample, Peterson already starts with something provocative: that “order” evokes the concept of “masculine”, and “chaos” evokes that of “feminine”.

Portuguese is a language with grammatical gender. The funny thing is that all the following words are feminine in Portuguese: order, organisation, productivity, management, autonomy, independence, freedom, security, goal, responsibility, reason, conscience, and conscientiousness.

The fact that a word is feminine in our mother tongue evokes unconscious associations. Furthermore, dear reader, you are on a productivity blog! When I hear the word “order”, I immediately associate it with my personal universe.

The provocation worked because I was curious to listen to the book. However, I set out this year of Detox to avoid self-help and productivity books. Except for books on museum management, which are part of my work, I have yet to read any books on productivity this year.

My books have included diaries of travellers who explored Brazil in past centuries, histories of art and classical music, short story literature, and chronicles. Would I break my Detox light reading routine with Peterson?

Curiosity won. I ended up listening to some chapters of that audio book; I went straight to the most controversial ones. And the situation is dire. He really writes that insanity, including the lobster thing.

The summary of my opinion on all of this is: with rare exceptions of severe mental health problems, we human beings are not unconditional hostages of our nature. Culture has a huge influence on our decisions.

Of course, we are also influenced by our genetics. Men and women have different biological characteristics. But we are not slaves to our instincts. Our nature is not a fatal destiny.

What Peterson defends is a highly toxic masculinity disguised with a false veneer of science and intellectuality. That kind of masculinity is finished. Fortunately, that ship is sailed; we turned that page a long time ago. Don’t fall for this nonsense!

If even an academic whose work is (in thesis) based on scientific methodology can say and write things like this, what awaits us in the future regarding disinformation? And what impact will this have on all of us, on humanity?

This man is becoming rich and famous based on controversies on YouTube and based on the insecurity of you men. The world is changing very quickly. It’s difficult for all of us, men and women, to keep up. But this Peterson guy capitalises on this difficulty in the most obscene way possible.

Men, you do not need to be “monsters”, “cruel”, or “champions” to be masculine, empowered, seductive, desirable, admirable, and loved. Believe me, please: we women are not lobsters! Especially intelligent women like me and my readers.

Peterson, do you know what Brazilian girls do with alpha lobsters around here? We eat them. Yummy!

TikTok

Fifth month without wasting time browsing TikTok!

Podcast

Some videos watched on YouTube were from channels that call themselves “podcasts”. I’m not going to include these hours here because I already inserted them in the YouTube item, which would duplicate them.

Also, these influencers are no longer podcasters in my opinion. Podcasting is producing audio. They are YouTubers who publish the audio of their videos on podcast platforms.

Netflix and Streaming

I didn’t watch any series this month, but I watched many films, all within the Detox rules, because I watched them with my family.

We went to the cinema to see Garfield. It was a very nostalgic month, in fact.

We are in an “exploratory” vibe here. At CCBB Belo Horizonte, we visited an incredible exhibition about Inca treasures and Peruvian artefacts made of gold. The children’s goal chart this year is archaeology-themed. (Yes, they have a goal chart. Mommy is a productivity freak.)

So we watched The Goonies and four Indiana Jones movies in May. As they are still young children, we skipped some of the more violent scenes, such as the deaths of the villains, but they loved it.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was exciting because the characters went to Peru to search for the legendary city of gold and then came to Brazil.

Reading about the film, I saw some Brazilians were upset with geographical inaccuracies. It doesn’t bother me at all that Brazil is just a setting; it’s a fictional film. But since this blog is educational, let’s go…

Francisco de Orellana existed and explored the Amazon River in the 16th century. However, the plot adapted a series of historical facts to fit the script. An interesting detail that is rarely mentioned is that he had a wife, Ana de Ayala, who went on expeditions with him!

Aramacá Island is on Brazil’s northern border, in the Amazon, where the film sets the fictional lost city. But the waterfall scene was filmed thousands of kilometres away, at the stunning Iguaçu Falls (or Iguazú), south of our country on the Argentina border.

The biome in Iguaçu is not the Amazonic but the Atlantic Forest, a lavish and verdant forest, too.

As I said, this adaptation doesn’t bother me at all. The film is about aliens, spaceships, and a comically destructive archaeologist.

I’m more worried about damaging archaeological sites and romanticising artefact traffic than about the Iguaçu Falls being placed in the wrong place!

Jokes aside, we had a lot of fun. It was good to take a break from the terrible news of the month.

The News

I read seven hours of news in May. I didn’t watch news videos this month, nor was I tempted to.

Brazil is facing one of the worst climate disasters in recent centuries. Rio Grande do Sul (Big River from the South), a state in the country’s extreme south, had the largest flood in its history.

My German descendants were from there. Then they came to the State of Rio de Janeiro and, finally, to Minas Gerais, where I am.

The areas most affected, as unfortunately often happens, are the poorest regions in addition to the historical centres, which were built centuries ago.

There was no lack of warning; scientists warned of the dangers. There was no lack of money; the sector responsible for this issue in the State was in surplus and had hundreds of millions of reais in cash. In my opinion, there was a lack of prevention, culture, science, management, and character.

And what was the consequence? Almost 500 affected cities, nearly half a million displaced population, almost one thousand injured people, 44 missing people and 172 confirmed deaths. Until now.

Human lives are obviously what matters most in this disaster. But I work with museums; there’s no way not to also suffer for museums and their professionals.

The best-structured museums and libraries implemented emergency plans to safeguard the collection before the flood. Although they managed to protect the objects, the historic buildings were invaded by water.

I also feel for the families who have lost their sentimental objects, photos, childhood toys, and roots: their “personal museums”.

It is an unprecedented tragedy directly linked to the planetary climate crisis and the relaxation of environmental legislation in the region.

The Brazilian press posted videos and news of floods worldwide, reflecting global warming and its consequences. This is a timely discussion now that Brazil is hosting the G20 meeting on the topic.

The planet is asking for help… these tragedies will become routine if we do nothing!

If you are outside Brazil and want to donate to the victims or museums affected by the flood, contact me by clicking here, and I will help you do so.

Music

I’m publishing two more playlists this month on my Apple Music profile. They are called Passion Blue and Passion Rose.

Songs with sad lyrics can bring your mood down. If this happens to you, skip Passion Blue and put rose-coloured glasses on Passion Rose! All we need is love…

Yes, I like Despacito. This music video is sexist and romanticises poverty, I know. But the rhythm is fun to dance to, and the original Spanish lyrics mix malice with delicacy.

If you are very disappointed that I like Despacito, watch the video of these three Italian “academics” who provide “solid scientific data” on why intelligent people can also like this song. #sillyjoke

By the way, my favourite version of Despacito is this one here, from a sweet Brazilian-Lebanese girl.

Regarding “analogue” music, my husband and I went to another 415 Orchestra concert. I talk about this orchestra in March’s diary.

The concert, titled Bach’s Prison, played works by that composer, alternating with theatrical scenes depicting fictional conversations between him and a cellmate. Bach’s lines were mostly taken from the lyrics of his cantatas.

Bach was arrested in 1717 because the Duke of Weimar did not want to let him go to work elsewhere. In fact, today, we enjoy unimaginable freedoms!

I found the mix of classical music and dramaturgy interesting.

Facebook

This month, I spent 40 minutes on Facebook interacting with museology and web development groups, staying within the Detox rules.

Instagram

I spent less than half an hour on Instagram in May, all under the Detox rules (restaurants, stores, hotels, etc.). Another star!

Twitter

May free from Twitter! I didn’t miss it at all.

Conclusion

Four years ago, in May 2020, my husband Beto celebrated his 40th birthday alone.

When the pandemic exploded, our city, Belo Horizonte, was one of the first to close everything, adopt isolation, and establish a scientific committee in partnership with experts and universities to deal with the health crisis.

Beto was on the front line in the fight against COVID-19, seeing patients daily. We knew nothing about this disease, how deadly it would be for our children or us.

So, my sister went to live with my parents, and he moved to her flat to be isolated and not put us at risk. We communicated basically via video conference.

On his 40th birthday, he watched the sunrise from a high point in the city, overlooking the mountains. He took the photo below. I cried so much seeing this photo. It was a sad day.

I tried to act “normal” because I didn’t want our children to suffer even more. Every day was a long wait. And time went by.

After three months, we saw that the planetary crisis would not pass anytime soon, and Beto returned home. He worked utterly covered in protective PPE so as not to contaminate himself. He would wash all his clothes and shower as soon as he got home at the end of the day, without coming near us before that.

I don’t need to tell you how difficult it was; you also lived through the pandemic.

And four years have passed. If you are reading this, you are a survivor like us.

Our favourite restaurant closed because of the financial crisis caused by COVID-19. So, this year, we celebrated Beto’s 44th birthday at the first nice restaurant we went to as a couple almost two decades ago. There, we remembered his lonely 40th birthday.

I was reflecting on these memories afterwards, for the purposes of this Detox, that people seemed even more addicted to digital content after the pandemic: social networks, online meetings, emails, messaging apps, videos, etc. The advancement of digitisation during this period brought advantages but also many disadvantages.

Furthermore, four years ago, we were deprived of everything. We couldn’t stay close to people we love and couldn’t do simple things, like breathing fresh air without wearing a mask, eating in a good restaurant, and going to squares, parks, and museums, which were closed to avoid crowds.

After everything we’ve experienced, we can no longer view these everyday pleasures as trivialities. We have to value the small joys in our daily lives.

We don’t know anything about tomorrow. Therefore, we must plan for the future, of course, but enjoy the journey. We should live a life with more love, beauty, lightness, and meaning. Living one day at a time is wise, and we should not take small pieces of happiness for granted, either.

The only certainty we have is the present moment. Please don’t waste it. We don’t need to achieve anything else to be happy and grateful to be alive now.

Today, I have a simple desire…

YouTube

I watched almost four hours of YouTube outside of the Detox rules. A considerable part of the videos were quite cultural, in fact—for example, “podcasts” by booktubers. I explain this when talking about Machado de Assis in this post, but I counted them as stolen hours anyway.

YouTube continues to be my Achilles heel…

TikTok

June is my sixth month without wasting time browsing TikTok. I was quite tempted, as you will see in the Instagram item. But I resisted. Who knows, maybe I’ll complete a year without browsing TikTok?

Podcasts

Some videos watched on YouTube were from channels that call themselves “podcasts”. I’m not going to include these hours here because I already inserted them in the YouTube item, which would duplicate them.

Netflix and Streaming

I didn’t watch any series this month but saw some films with my family—all within the Detox rules.

Warning: spoiler alert!

We watched Kung Fu Panda 4 on streaming. In 2024, Panda continues to suffer from fat-shaming. Unbelievable!

Another thing that caught my attention was the bad fox who turned good in the end. I explained to our children that, unfortunately, this type of transformation almost never happens in real life. When someone reveals their character, it’s important to believe them the first time and be a little skeptical about radical changes.

We and the rest of the “parents planet” watched Inside Out 2 at the cinema.

What I liked… Addressing the topic of anxiety. In Brazil, recent public health data reveal that, for the first time, anxiety in children and young people has surpassed that in adults. And social media, as well as cell phones, play an essential role in this. It was exemplary that the character Ennui (boredom) had a smartphone in her hand.

Another thing I loved was the inclusive approach, with characters of various appearances, ethnicities, etc.

What I didn’t like… The plot revolves around hockey. Here at home, we have serious reservations about the practice of competitive and high-performance professional sports in contemporary ways. I explained more about this in the February diary when I talked about football.

In the future, the early professionalisation of children in competitive sports will be prohibited, as shown in the film. Even more so, hockey is such a violent sport.

The good side is that it led to interesting conversations about this topic with our children. But I would have preferred the central plot to revolve around something other than sport.

The News

I didn’t watch news videos this month and only read three hours of news, my lowest news consumption of the year.

Music

I attended a Vivaldi candlelight concert with my husband, Beto. Very well executed. The vigorous tempo reminded me of Il Giardino Armonico.

More than two decades ago, while travelling alone in Europe, I attended a similar concert in London—Vivaldi by candlelight at St Martin in the Fields. I went to the church website to remember the place. They also had a similar concert at the same Candlelight event this month. The world sometimes seems smaller every day…

I also watched some live music in the Eternal Moderns Cafe. The group had an excellent repertoire in an acoustic style. They played quality music, like Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.

Eternal Moderns is an annual architecture, design, and art exhibition that mixes contemporary and vintage decor. I love visiting this event, both for professional reasons (there are many historical objects and exhibition ideas) and for artistic reasons.

When I was there, I remembered going to this exhibition in 2021. I still had the photos on my cell phone and reviewed them. Going to such an event after everything we experienced during the pandemic was a shock for me. It affected me then, and I couldn’t make the most of it. I’ll share more about it later in the blog.

Sitting at the garden bar party this time, I reflected on the importance of enjoying every pleasurable moment in life with mindfulness, paying attention to the present, real life and the people we love. The reader will better understand what led to these reflections in the post’s conclusions.

Here are some photos from Eternal Moderns, starting with some spaces in the exhibition. And at the end, we have some pics from the Garden Bar Party, the Cafe, and the restaurant, where I also listen to excellent vintage music. On the typewriter paper, it says, “Can productivity and rest coexist?“

Facebook

This month, I spent 20 minutes on Facebook reading the museology and web development groups—all within the Detox rules.

Instagram

This month, I spent about half an hour on Instagram outside of the Detox rules. I will explain why below.

An American influencer called Courtney Henning Novak decided to take a Reading Around The World, choosing a book from each country. For Brazil, she chose The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis (Warning: Book spoiler alert!). Find out more about Machado de Assis by clicking here.

Courtney recorded an “outraged” video because Brás Cubas’s book was ending, and in her opinion, it was the best book in the world. She didn’t know what to do with her life after finishing it or how she would move on to other countries. Finally, she concluded that she would need to learn Portuguese to read the book in its original.

Courtney was one of many foreigners who recorded videos about Machado. I watched others this month, which were also interesting. But the difference is that her video went viral on TikTok, with almost a million views just a few days later. This boosted sales of Brás Cubas on Amazon.

Well, Machado’s inclusion on the Amazon list became news in the Brazilian press. I was tempted to check out the influencer’s TikTok, but I resisted because I’m doing so well on TikTok this detox.

I then went to her Instagram. There were some videos about Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro, another Machado classic.

Three reflections on my trip to Courtney’s Insta:

First, the most-read Brazilian author in the world has been published in more than 170 countries, sold more than 300 million books and is one of the few writers who became a billionaire through literature. But Courtney didn’t choose him. She preferred Machado. I’m not complaining. I’m impressed.

Second, resisting the power of numbers was not enough; Courtney chose, among Machado’s books, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas.

The book is narrated by a dead character who tells his story from beyond the grave. Brás Cubas is a narcissistic and futile bon-vivant who “waltzes” with his conscience to hide from himself how empty and characterless his life is. It is an acidic and humoured criticism of the carioca elite (elite from Rio de Janeiro). You can learn more about Brás Cubas by reading this article here.

Many people prefer Dom Casmurro, a dramatic and controversial novel. And it would make sense since Courtney loves Pride and Prejudice. (By the way, like Courtney, I’m also on Team Capitu!) But no, she preferred to start with Brás Cubas. She impressed me again.

The last time I read Machado was millennia ago. So, this month, I listened to the Brás Cubas’ audiobook. Classical music was in the background, transitioning between chapters, and the characters’ voices varied. It sounded like an old radio soap opera, especially since Machado is a 19th-century writer.

It was my first literary audiobook. I found the experience of “listening” to literature interesting, although the topic of death is a little heavy for me at the moment. But it’s OK.

Finally, the third point. Courtney is the same age as me. We both like to read and write. She embroiders. (By the way, it’s been a while since I’ve embroidered. I need to do it again…) She watches her children play sports, like me. But the context is so different from my Brazilian landscape: baseball on the court, Pasadena mountains in the background.

Looking at Courtney’s Insta was a brief dive into another universe. This is a magical aspect of the internet…

Twitter

I didn’t check Twitter this month. I didn’t even want to do it.

Conclusion

We lost someone we loved dearly this month. She passed away after decades of battling an insidious illness that eventually became terminal.

For the purpose of this Detox Journal, among the various lessons this person left us, it is her admirable and stoic ability to love life regardless of suffering and circumstances. And to live in the present moment without being distracted by her cell phone, social media, or anything else.

In fact, I only remember her holding her cell phone to order treats at the bakery. For her, smartphones and the internet have always been ways to make our real lives happier. With this lesson, I conclude (belatedly) the detox journal for this challenging month.

YouTube

I watched an hour and a half of YouTube outside the Detox rules in July. It was better than last month but didn’t go to zero. My YouTube consumption within the rules is also high, as I watch videos for work and also for writing blog posts. This needs to improve this semester.

TikTok

Seventh month without TikTok. I didn’t miss it at all.

Podcasts

I watched about two hours of podcasts about podcasts. Metapodcasts, let’s say.

I will consider it within the rules of Detox because it’s related to the post I’m writing for the series on narcissism (almost on air, folks!). It’s also related to reflections I’ve been making about my online presence and the decisions I need to make about it.

The decision about whether I’ll have my own podcast in the future can wait. But whether I’ll participate in podcasts from other people and institutions is a more urgent decision. Also, I’ll need to decide in which language I’ll do this (I’m reducing my online exposure in Portuguese; I’ll comment more on that later).

The world of podcasts is not simple and is closely connected to the attention economy, surveillance capitalism, and misinformation on the Web.

The videos I watched range from investigative journalism about the backstage of the main sponsors of these influencers (check out these three excellent videos by Scott Carney about Athletic Greens, Oura Ring and Alpha Brain) to politically incorrect humour.

Netflix and Streaming

I haven’t watched any series or documentaries this month; I just watched movies with our kids. Streaming has been okay during this Digital Detox.

The News

I watched and read seven and a half hours more news than the Digital Detox rules allowed, which limit consumption to two hours per week. In addition, I couldn’t resist watching news videos again this month.

It all started with happiness and euphoria, watching the images of Labour’s landslide victory over the Conservatives in Great Britain and France’s impressive manoeuvre to contain the far right. Thank you, dear English and French readers. Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

Well, then things started to get even more complicated in other places. The war in Gaza could escalate to the surrounding area. Venezuela is moving towards consolidating a dictatorship. And, of course, the world is holding its breath because of the US.

For now, I won’t comment on Trump’s assassination attempt and Kamala’s triumphant entry into the race. But I don’t resist talking about the American election; after all, I research inclusive management.

First, I must clarify that this is not a campaign for Biden. We don’t even consider Biden a left politician here in Brazil. But, of course, if he were the Democratic candidate, the entire civilised world and I would be cheering for him.

I’m using Biden’s case to reflect on the ageism and ableism of society and the press.

I’m in my forties and always mix up words. Furthermore, I forget names, confuse information and make my students happy with “slips of the tongue” and absurd statements that come out unintentionally because my filter isn’t the best.

If I reach Biden’s age with the physical and mental condition he has, I’ll feel blessed and privileged.

Is it enough to be President of the United States? No, it’s probably not. But is it excellent? Yes, it’s impressive. And it’s with this approach that the press should have reported the problem. And not with derogatory language and jokes that are unacceptable for ethical journalism.

I won’t rant on comedy shows because comedy follows its own rules (or lack thereof). But what some official press did to Biden is ageism and ableism.

The way they handled the case was disrespectful and even complicated, since Biden is still in the Oval Office. They have undermined people’s trust in the current US president, and this is dangerous for global democracy.

It also reveals the misguided cult of youth that prevails in contemporary times. The result is middle-aged men with existential crises. And women risking their lives with dangerous procedures and unnecessary cosmetic surgeries in the name of eternal “beauty and youth”.

None of this makes any sense to me. By the way, I’ve been strategically dressing in a vintage uniform for many years. Your grandmother would love my professional wardrobe!

In addition, since I was young, I have loved being around people older than me. I am surrounded by older people most of the time, both in my real and virtual worlds.

I don’t consider myself to have “daddy issues”. A friend from college used to say that I had “selfish issues”. He noticed that I enjoyed being in the company of older people because they had a lot to offer me. In fact, this is one of the main reasons.

Of course, old age is not a credential. Not everyone ages well. But here is my advice to my young readers: don’t take for granted the potential contributions of older people.

Older people with emotional health and character can transmit wisdom, knowledge, serenity, prudence, and life experience to us. They can also be excellent mentors because they have already overcome that competitive immaturity and truly want our well-being and success. Thank goodness I discovered all of this very early on.

Every month, I have a “solitude date” with myself. I take myself out to dinner or lunch somewhere nice. Two of my favourite restaurants are mainly attended by older costumers. It is extremely common for me to be one, two, or more decades younger than everyone there, including the waiters.

Some readers who follow the blog may wonder how I ended up marrying someone a couple of years younger than me.

Beto did look like a boy, but he chased me like a confident man. After a few five-hour phone calls, I realised that the boy was under a spell… he had an old soul trapped in a young body. And I fell madly in love.

More than twenty years have passed. Guess who now has a charming white streak in his hair?

Music

Everything is within the rules, but I listened to a lot of music this month. I need to cut back on that. I also listened to live music at Mercado de Origem (Origin Market, photos at the end).

Facebook

I spent not even half an hour on Facebook, checking the Museology and Web Development groups. Clear!

Instagram

Nothing outside the Instagram rules this month. I only accessed it to check information about restaurants, museums, travelling, etc. Bravo!

Twitter

I didn’t even go near Twitter this month. That must have been wild.

Conclusion

We had some interesting opportunities to connect with nature this winter, which made me want to tighten up the rules of this Digital Detox even more for the second half of the project. I’ll talk about that in the next diary.

Some of my international readers are curious about what it’s like to live in Brazil or travel around here. In this new phase, I will post much about my country on my English blog. There’s more news coming, so please stay tuned. We’re “under renovation” on this platform.

In the meantime, below is a sample of what our winter was like this July in Minas Gerais (MG state), where we live.

MG is off the coast, so we don’t have a beach. However, MG has the most significant number of caves, tourist cities, and cultural heritage listed in Brazil. Our state is also home to several natural parks and archaeological sites. Our tropical nature is not the Amazon but the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado (Brazilian savanna).

This month, we visited the Route of Peter Lund, a Danish naturalist who lived here in the 19th century and is considered the father of speleology and palaeontology in Brazil. I am reading his biography and that of Peter Andreas Brandt, the Norwegian artist who created scientific illustrations for Lund. (A warm virtual hug to my Norwegian and Danish readers!)

In Lagoa Santa (Holy Lagoon City), we visited the Parque do Sumidouro (Sink Park), the Peter Lund Museum and one of the caves he studied, the Lapinha.

We also rented a house in the woods in a condominium in Nova Lima (New Lima City). It had a reading chair with a view of the forest, a small lake with fish, a stream and wild animals.

I saw a beautiful blue butterfly flying in the track. It looked like a floating jewel, but I didn’t take a picture of it. I enjoyed the moment with my family. “Taking pictures with the head”, my daughter usually says.

We also walked around Vale do Sol (Sun Valley) and Macacos (Monkey’s Village), a colonial little town now dotted with bars, inns, and ecotourism companies. The atmosphere is the opposite of Sun Valley: very informal and lively— “Pop charming”!

Finally, here are some photos of Mercado de Origem (Origin Market), which brings together stores of rural producers. There, we listened to live music and visited the Museu das Reduções (Museum of Architectural Miniatures).

The market is close to Espaço 356 (356 Space), a shopping and entertainment centre I visited twice this month: once alone for work and once with my husband for leisure.

356 Space hosted Casa Cor (Colour House), the country’s most influential annual architecture, design, and art exhibition. I love this event, which, like Modernos Eternos (Eternal Moderns, see the June diary for more), has exhibitions, restaurants, lectures, art galleries, parties, etc.

My second visit to Colour House with my husband was over the weekend. However, my first visit was during the week when the exhibition was empty, and the monitors provided more deep information about the concept. I was impressed by the paradigm shift.

A decade ago, practically all of Colour House’s spaces, from the kitchen to the home office, incorporated digital technology. Smart Homes were the motto, and people always wanted to feel connected.

Now, the narrative is the opposite! Most proposals focused on social interaction, relaxation, and the analogue world. There was a widespread lack of digital equipment in the exhibition. This is symptomatic of the times we live in, of our desire for digital disconnection.

After my visit, I went to work for a while at the Rizoma restaurant at 356 Space. After work, I had a great “Solitude Date” over dinner with myself. And I followed it up with a happy hour with my blog, writing the drafts of this very post that you are now reading…

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

Coming soon!