After the election, I found myself overwhelmed by a surge of negative and unsettling digital content, all vying for my attention and amplifying my disillusionment. Whether it was a YouTube video critiquing Trump’s latest statement, Instagram’s short clips about how the Democrats lost touch with everyday Americans, or the barrage from podcasts, movies, “news” channels, and the contentious voices on my Facebook feed—everything seemed to consume my time and cloud my mind. Instead of doing something constructive, I let my thoughts be overtaken by noise. And let me tell you, nothing corrodes the mind quite like social media.
Many people I know have simply turned it all off. But for me, that wasn’t an option. The next four years will be challenging, so I needed to reassess how I engage with what’s to come. I resolved to curate my digital life more intentionally. I quickly discovered that social media platforms offer limited tools for effective content curation, making the process painstakingly slow.
When I reviewed my subscriptions across platforms, I was shocked at how many people I followed—often without remembering why. I started with Facebook, the biggest offender. Out of 739 friends, a quick scan revealed that seven had passed away, and six hadn’t posted anything in over a year. My first step was to remove these inactive connections, bringing my friend count down to 664.
I also categorized my remaining friends using Facebook’s custom lists feature. I moved those who frequently posted MAGA content to my Restricted List, cleaning up my feed significantly. I grouped people I wished to maintain a relationship with—but not share my personal life with—under Acquaintances. This gave me more control over who could see my posts, helping me avoid engagement with trolls. The results were immediately noticeable: less hate, more baby photos.
The content overload extended beyond social media to emails and text messages. During the election cycle, my donations to political candidates resulted in a surge of fundraising emails—up to 50 per day, sometimes with multiple duplicates sent to my different email addresses. Post-election, I had a brief respite before the emails ramped back up to 25 per day, though the text messages have thankfully slowed down, likely due to some candidates I supported losing.
Digital curation is the term that best describes my new approach to managing this torrent of negative content. It refers to the process of collecting, organizing, and sharing relevant content to engage and inform an audience. In this case, the audience is me. Curation involves selecting and managing digital content from various sources, whether self-created or third-party, and presenting it in a way that adds value or insight. Negative content, by contrast, contributes nothing of worth.
I’m even tempted to add “Digital Curator” to my LinkedIn profile. It certainly sounds better than “semi-retired,” and the effort involved feels like a full-time job. My initial pass at Facebook alone took hours.
Peanuts In My Pocket 
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