The Battle for Attention - Time without X.

I’ve been off X for about a week now, and my goal is to stay off for the entire summer.

I still check it briefly for breaking news because, if you follow the right accounts, it’s still one of the best real-time news feeds in the world. But I’ve stopped going into my actual feed. At first, I found myself doing it out of habit. I’d open the app for one thing and then five minutes later I’d be scrolling through arguments, predictions, outrage, and distractions that had absolutely nothing to do with why I opened it in the first place. Eventually I caught myself. If I can’t maintain that discipline, I’ll probably create a separate burner account that exists strictly for news and nothing else.

But stepping away has reminded me of something we all already know. You know what I am about to type…

I’ve had one of the best weeks I’ve had in a very long time.

Not because something incredible happened. Not because my circumstances changed. Not because all my problems disappeared.

I simply removed thousands of voices from my daily life.

I’m an extremely happy person, so when I feel any sense of unhappiness, I attack it. The result was immediate. More clarity. More focus. More happiness. Less anxiety. Less dread, if any. Less of that feeling that your attention is constantly being pulled in ten different directions at the same time. That allows you to drop your mental shield. I mean why even bother?

And before somebody says it’s because I can’t handle it, let me save them the trouble. I am fully aware of how my mind works. I’m probably more disciplined than most people reading this. If I can feel the difference after only a week, then I suspect many others are being affected far more than they realize or worse, refuse to admit.

The strange part is that I genuinely love many of the people I’ve met through this platform. I’ve built friendships, future business relationships, and connections that never would have existed otherwise. I’ve shared ideas, learned a tremendous amount, and hopefully helped countless people along the way.

For that, I have nothing but gratitude.

In many ways, it’s the greatest networking platform ever created.

But there has to be a balance.

And while many people claim they have that balance, I don’t think most of them do. Spend five minutes looking at your own habits. How often are you opening the app? How often are you checking notifications? How often are you refreshing your feed looking for something new?

You don’t have to answer to me, answer to yourself. Are you strong enough to admit it?

Many of the influencers will tell you this is normal. Of course they will. Their business model depends on your attention. Their success depends on your engagement.

But let’s be honest.

This thing is addictive.

Ive battled extreme conditions in my life, a life of parting, grandeur, and excess that would have disabled other men. Fallen to darkness and addictions. What I can say is that X is extremely addictive. A nasty habitual cycle.

Addiction.

Maybe not in the traditional sense. Maybe it’s something more subtle.

It’s a loop.

You open the app because you’re looking for information. A few minutes later you’re reading an argument between two strangers. Then you’re checking another account. Then another. Then you’re responding to something. Then you’re reading replies. Then you’re consuming outrage that has absolutely no impact on your actual life.

Then the dopamine hits….

And before you know it, thirty minutes have disappeared.

Then an hour.

Then years.

The question I’ve been asking myself all week is this:

How many people are we allowing into our lives every single day?

Hundreds?

Thousands?

Every opinion. Every argument. Every outrage. Every prediction. Every crisis. Every debate.

Some of these discussions matter. Some are valuable. Some genuinely sharpen your thinking and make you a better person.

But many don’t.

Many are simply noise.

And the cost of that noise is far greater than most people realize.

The older I get, the more I believe attention is one of the most valuable possessions we have. We spend enormous amounts of time protecting our money, our homes, our children, our spouses, our parents, and our future. Yet many of us hand over our attention, the very thing from which our lives are built, to complete strangers every day without thinking twice about it.

Perhaps my perspective is different because I never grew up with social media.

Perhaps my perspective is different because I spent the first 45 years of my life without social media. In fact, I used to openly mock it. I never understood why grown adults cared so much about what strangers were eating, wearing, buying, thinking, or doing. You wouldn’t have caught me dead on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or any of the other platforms. None of it appealed to me.

When Elon bought X, I made an exception.

I convinced myself it was different.

And in some ways it is.

It’s not really a platform built around vanity, selfies, influencers, and carefully curated lifestyles. Life porn as some have called it. It became a place where ideas were debated, news broke in real time, and people could challenge narratives that were once untouchable. It gave ordinary people a voice and allowed me to connect with thousands of interesting individuals I never would have met otherwise.

I couldn’t be canceled so that gave me a powerful voice.

But over the last week I’ve found myself asking a difficult question.

What if it’s not better?

What if it’s simply different?

Instagram might sell envy.

TikTok might sell distraction.

X sells something else entirely.

When Elon bought X, many of us convinced ourselves it was different.

It wasn’t Instagram. It wasn’t TikTok. It wasn’t people dancing, posting selfies, or pretending their lives were perfect.

It was supposed to be the digital town hall.

A place where ideas could compete, news could break in real time, and ordinary people could challenge powerful institutions.

But after spending time away, I’ve started wondering if we got that wrong.

Because a town hall is where citizens gather to solve problems.

What we built feels more like the town shithole.

A place where outrage is rewarded, attention is harvested, arguments never end, and everyone is convinced they’re changing the world while endlessly refreshing their feed.

The brilliance of X is that it doesn’t feel like entertainment.

It feels important.

That’s what makes it so powerful.

And that’s what makes it so difficult to walk away from.

It sells the feeling that every argument is important and every controversy requires your participation.

“YOU MATTER” your “VOICE IS IMPORTANT”

And perhaps that’s even more dangerous because it disguises itself as productivity, activism, education, networking, or staying informed.

At least when you’re wasting time watching dance videos, you know you’re wasting time.

When you’re spending three hours reading political arguments, market predictions, geopolitical debates, and endless threads, you can convince yourself you’re doing something important.

Sometimes you are.

Many times you’re not.

I spent the first 45 years of my life without thousands of strangers having constant access to my thoughts and attention.

I know what life looks like without it.

And honestly?

It’s spectacular.

After Elon bought X, I came online because I wanted a voice. I wanted to participate in important discussions. I wanted to push back against narratives I believed were wrong. I wanted to help people. Somewhere along the way, I accomplished many of those goals.

But somewhere along the way, I also allowed thousands of strangers to occupy space in my mind every single day. That’s the trade nobody talks about. We tell ourselves we’re staying informed, networking, helping people, learning, growing, and sometimes that’s true. But sometimes we’re simply consuming noise and calling it productivity. A week away reminded me of something I’ve always known but somehow forgotten: not every battle needs to be fought, not every opinion deserves a response, and not every controversy deserves a place in your mind. The problem is that X makes all of them feel important. It convinces you that every argument requires your attention, every headline deserves your emotional energy, and every stranger’s opinion somehow matters. Before long, you’re carrying around problems that aren’t yours, fighting battles that don’t affect your life, and giving away the one thing you can never get back…..your attention.

Those ideas sound obvious, yet they are incredibly difficult to practice. Especially when you genuinely want to help people. Especially when you convince yourself that every argument matters. Especially when you forget that not everyone on the other side of the screen is acting in good faith.

I’ve met many of them. They are not good people. Most are purchased.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is close the app, go outside, spend time with your family, say a prayer, read a book, take a walk, and remember that real life is happening all around you.

The news cycle will still be there tomorrow. The outrage machine will still be operating. The politicians will still be lying. The media will still be manipulating. The influencers will still be farming engagement. The same arguments will be waiting for you exactly where you left them.

But your children will be older.

Your parents will have aged.

Another summer will have come and gone.

And the time you spent fighting battles that were never yours to fight will be gone forever.

Moderation is the key to almost everything in life, or at least that's what I've always believed. But after a week away from X, I've found myself wrestling with a question I never expected to ask: what if moderation isn't possible? What if some things are specifically designed to consume as much of your attention as you're willing to give them? I don't know the answer. What I do know is that after stepping away, I feel happier, more focused, more present, and more at peace. And that's a difficult truth to ignore.