Dear reader, 

Many of you have been alongside me through a journey of social media and screen time addiction, witnessing me do a myriad of experiments to see if I could use it with ease and not letting it spin me out, weave it into zines and books and countless newsletters and episodes of Common Shapes, and eventually deleting all my accounts with an accumulative 100k followers and thirteen years of archival material. 

In an effort to learn more about my relationship to social media, addiction, attention, and community I wrote a book called The Practice of Attention : Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World. This book comes out TOMORROW with St. Martin’s Essentials and the support of Sounds True.

If my work has ever supported you, challenged you, made you annoyed so you could see yourself more cleary, or changed your life in a positive way : buying this book is a beautiful way to continue that support. Plus you only have twenty four hours left to get the pre order bonuses. 

I hope you buy it and I hope you love it. I actually hope a lot of people love it and it helps them have less screen time and more time serving their most vulnerable neighbors and community members. That’s the whole point of the book. To be on your phone less and in your life more. It maps out five of my most diligent practices that keep me alive and glimmering. Along with ways to be of service to your family, yourself, and those around you.

I had planned to promote the book without social media as much of the book explores my distaste with it, but as the publication date got closer I thought gosh, it would be so nice to share these messages far and wide. Alas, I had deleted my account. But I’ll never forget the day I deleted it, my friend Joanna Fusco, lovingly known as Lord Cowboy, said “You can always make a new account some day”. It had never occured to me I could just always start from zero again if I wanted to.

So today I am here to tell you three things.

One. I have an Instagram account again.

You can follow it, tag me when you share your copy of the book, and then hopefully read the book and stop scrolling for too long. It’s a humble little beginning of an account.

If you don’t have Instagram anymore - that’s awesome! I hope you are happier without it. I missed it and wished I’d never deleted my accounts, long live the archive and changing our minds! I missed seeing what events were happening locally as a hermit, I missed seeing what my friends were up to, I missed relishing in the joy of being celebrated and celebrating others.

If you don’t want to follow the new account, I don’t care! Like there literally is no part of my body that cares what you do because I am filled with loving detachment as a pre requisite for getting an Instagram account again. It’s not that I don’t care about you dear reader, it’s that I fully trust you to make decisions that align with what feels good for our parasocial relationship (or real life friendship).

This rule also applies to unsubscribing from this newsletter, you don’t have to tell me or write an email about it - and better yet - I’LL NEVER KNOW! I don’t look at my unsubscribes because I don’t hate myself and if you leave I only bless you on your journey elsewhere. The unsubscribe button appears at the bottom of every single email.

I understand this may feel confusing, disappointing, or some other feeling that may include trust breaking, projection, or hopelessness. All I can do is share my journey and hope that some part of it relfects back to you what your own pathway should be.

In summary : Click here to follow me on the social media platform Instagram. Do not click there if you enjoy just being a newsletter reader. Call it Mercury Retrograde or missing a period from the anesthesia of top surgery but I am in CLEARING HOUSE mode. So much is coming through me right now and I only want to the most right fit people here to experience it with me.

Two. I am officially retiring from talking about, writing about, and teaching about social media addiction and recovery.

I took on the assignment in 2017 and today I put the assignment down. On the Christmas Eve of a book that covers much of the topic, I will let the writing speak for itself. Perhaps one final zine will emerge to track the return. The Practice of Attention was always meant to be a framework for you to build, not mine for you to copy, and the book does this beautifully.

In the process of writing the book I knew I wanted to do somethign drastic, like delete my accounts. And in doing dozens of interviews for the book I discovered something new — there are so many other things I’d rather be talking about than social media.

I want to talk about plants, and god, and growing flowers, and Pilates, and history, and whats happening in the world now. I want to talk about love and being gay and being trans. I want to talk about swimming and artist residencies and Beach Monday.

Somewhere along the way it wasn’t social media that got in my way, it was the amount I was trying to prove something publically. That I could live without it. I am humbly reminded yet again, I am not here to prove anything.

I have drawn a lot of parallels to phone and social media use with alcoholism / problem drinking. And while I still believe this to be true - using an app will never mirror the pain and horror of active addiction for me. Of almost dying, of knowing that if I picked back up again my death would be imminent. Again these are my truths, my unravelings, things that are coming to light for me.

Returning to Instagram doesn’t feel like returning to an addiction or an abusive toxic ex, because both of those I couldn’t escape. I know where the levers are, I know where the bunker is, I know how to get out.

Three. I am also retiring the phrase Tornado Person.

Shout out to Stephanie Graham who was the first person to challenge me to my face that Tornado Person might not fit anymore. She pointed out that tornadoes are filled with destruction, destroying everything in their path. Most of my quick and wild pivots affect one person : me. Now of course, we live in community and my choices have ripple effects to those I love. But I try to keep a smaller and smaller circle of people with pristine boundaries so that my ripples don’t rock them.

I am not a tornado person.

I am a cloud person, a lake person, a meadow person.

I have the capacity to move slowly and thoughtfully and I have the shapes to move swiftly and with abandon. I don’t have to name these as good or bad. Tornado Person served its purpose in a pre diagnosis world when I didn’t have the language of neurodivergence and disability. It was also a way to brace agaist feedback before I even got any. This shield of - you can’t say I’m crazy if I say I’m crazy first.

I refuse to let my malleability be a fear for other people. For my spirals to be an invitation to give feedback. My house was built up on the hill with a tornado shelter because the builder’s first house got destroyed by a tornado. My own home, proof that protection exists after the storm.

So you may want to say oh there’s Cody being a tornado person going back to Instagram when they wrote a book and said they deleted it. Nope dear reader. No tornado to see here. Your stock and your harvest and your home are intact. I’m just a cardinal shifting roles in the forest of creation.

The Second Internet

I teach a lot about the difference between tools and platforms (There is a great Off The Grid episode about this) and for thirteen years I used Instagram as a platform. No, it doesn’t just automatically turn into a tool, but the way we use machines, systems, and apps can change over time to be more like a tool. This is an intention I have for using Instagram differently.

It goes back to boundaries again. It’s a tool I use, owned by an evil corporation. So if someone has an opinion or a suggestion on how I use it that I don’t align with, I won’t be bending myself to impress them. I will continue to use it as a tool with the practical utility I’ve developed for it.

I have found that this focus on writing, thinking about, and talking about social media has been right on time, but the time is no longer. I am desparate to spend more time making and working on my art. Believeing in a second internet where I don’t want to be on it for as long, I can see what my friends are up to, I can point people in the direction of my business. This is what The Practice of Attention is about more than anything.

In leaving social media last year I didn’t recreate my business model or structure, in fact I sort of just kept burning things down to see what wanted to grow back. This was extremely uncomofrtable but now that the meadow is finding its new flowers I feel with cutting certainty what I want to attempt to bring forward again.

How to support tomorrow’s big day :

→ Follow along on Instagram, tag me, share your copy of the book

→ Friends : Text me! I’d love to hear from you

→ Readers : Email me well wishes, it means a lot!

→ Write a review on Goodreads or Amazon (you don’t have to have purchased it from Amazon or believe in its darkness to leave a review there tomorrow, alas it does help!)

→ Connect in the newsletter comments (scroll to the bottom) : Today’s comments are open to all subscribers and I would love to know — What is your relationship like with social media right now? What is working? Did you leave and feel liberated? Do you love being there? The comments section is generally reserved for paid subscribers but I’d really love to connect in there today, not about your thoughts on my return but reflecting on your own relationship to apps, technology, and screen time.

Above are some nice reviews of the book, all written by people who still use social media. Again, the book is not about quitting it, it’s about living in a world where we build our lives up so big that we don’t need to reach for it as much.

Thank you for being a reader of my newsletter, the place where I come to figure things out, the place where since 2012 (some of you have been here that long, wild) I have come to find my people.

I am grateful for my therapist, my agent, my publisher, psychic mentors, friends, and fellows, who helped me make a heart centered decision to try social media again, and maybe even dare to have fun on it.

And to anyone who ever told me it was ok to change my mind, not just about things I say but about things I publish in whole ass books, thank you. Happy changing day.

Coming up : Click below to join the waitlists and hear more 

Cody's Clubhouse : A writing co-working group beta testing in the month of May 

Systems For Artists : March 28 + 29 with co-working on April 1

The Practice of Attention : Eight Week Study Group Sundays 5-6EST April 12 - May 31 

Today is the FINAL DAY of the 30% off past classes sale! ALl past classes are now available on demand and with code TIMEISWILD you can have them. Payment plans available.

→ Monstera : A guaranteed income program for Black Poets

→ On deleting my paid newsletter subscriber list in a manic episode in an interview with Seth Werkheiser of Social Media Escape Club (one of the realest interviews I’ve done about the book) :

“I felt a little flippant, almost. Like, oh, I can just build it back. And it’s like, it took me four years to build that many paid subscribers. It wasn’t like it just happened one day. And so I’ve been really thinking about how precious it is to have — I would like to think I would never delete my email list as a whole. I see people making quick decisions without really realizing how it might affect their self-employment landscape.”

→ Amelia Hruby had me on Off The Grid for the third time and EVERY time I am on this podcast I do something crazy (like deavtivate, delete, or return to Instagram) I loved talking about how attention helps us finish projects and how stepping back from social media can actually amplify political resistance.

→ April’s PROMPTS (my analog newsletter) is all about MEMORY. Plus it’s getting a new look and feel. I’ve been using it as more of a teaching modality and it’s feeling a bit dry, so I’m excited to get more personal and tell some stories and dig deeper. $11 month, ships worldwide. Plus Harriet Powers stamps are in!

→ Yesterday when Michael B. Jordan won the oscar for Best Actor he began his acceptance speach repeating the line God is good, God is good. And that is how I want to acknowledge every win, and every failure. The ultimate reminder.

→ I talked with Monica Packer on About Progress about turning off your phone for a few hours, logging off, and taking walks.

→ I found The Quilter’s Cache in Ann Friedman’s newsletter and I love it

→ THIS WEDNESDAY I am doing a reading at Boulder Bookstore at 6:30pm and I would love to see you there

→ Assata Shakur (1947 - 2025) Poetry Archive

→ Flax to Linen Community Grow Project with Michigan Fibershed starts March 17

→ I am loving taking LA Warman’s FINISH IT class and wish this class worked with my schedule : Write DEBT

Poetry isn’t difficult, it’s sensual & so are we! Join The Poetic Canopy to learn how to befriend poetry, bear witness, & engage in a present life.

Sunday dread? Try something gentler. Movement + reflective writing. Free Sunday Scaries Circle on 3/22.

Seth from Social Media Escape Club offers 1:1 Email Guidance, helping you see how your website and newsletter can work together without social media.

This April, reclaim your time from the capitalist clock thru weekly practices with your body, community, ancestors, & the Land. Register by 3/27.

Want to book a classified ad for May ? Read all about it here. Sale extended - take 30% off with code TIMEISWILD

→ info@codycookparrott.com
→ www.codycookparrott.com
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P.S. I know I did a flash sale but I keep getting emails of people who missed it - so for ONE MORE DAY everything is 30% off - classified ads, MY ONLINE SHOP (QUILTS!), creative advising sessions, and all past classes with the code TIMEISWILD (For Deep Dives the code is TIMEISWILD!)