Return to Unmade Time

Laozi understood time as a natural rhythm disrupted by human intervention and desire. Social media algorithms create artificial time—fragmented, accelerated, designed to maximize engagement through novelty and urgency. This manufactured temporality dissolves the spaciousness needed for genuine connection and self-knowledge. Loneliness intensifies when users are perpetually in reactive mode, scrolling through infinite feeds without rest, their natural rhythm colonized by notifications and auto-play. Returning to unmade time means reclaiming moments untouched by algorithmic curation: deliberate breaks from the platform, conversations with defined beginnings and ends, and restoration of cyclical time tied to circadian rhythms and seasons. This practice doesn't require abandoning social media but rather creating boundaries that honor human temporal needs. The result: reduced anxiety, clearer thinking, and paradoxically, more meaningful digital interactions conducted from a place of abundance rather than scarcity.