Why I Quit TikTok (and Everything Else) to Write Only on Medium and Substack

I didn’t vanish from the internet — I simply walked away from the noise to find my voice again.

Shot a quick self-portrait in my studio for a keynote I did recently.
Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash

I didn’t quit TikTok in one dramatic, movie-like gesture.
No tearful goodbye post, no grand digital detox.

Just me — one quiet evening — staring at that tiny glowing icon on my screen and feeling something shift inside.
Not anger. Not boredom. Just… exhaustion.

That kind of deep, bone-level tiredness you can’t name, but you know it’s time.

For a long time, I told myself I was creating.
That social media was a tool — a place to share, connect, express.

But somewhere between the filters and the trending sounds, I started to feel like a performer who had forgotten their lines.
Every swipe was another stage. Every post, another act.
And I was performing for an audience that never stayed long enough to clap.

At first, it was fun.
The views. The dopamine. The tiny bursts of validation that said,
“You…

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