I’m swearing off Instagram and X, where it’s too easy to get a distorted sense of the public’s concerns.
When I met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her visit to the U.S. in July 2024, she told me she never reads or watches the news because she doesn’t want the media to influence her approach to governing. Instead, she travels her country and hears directly from citizens. What a beautiful idea.
My New Year’s resolution is to do something similar: I plan to become a social-media teetotaler in 2026.
On New Year’s Eve, I deleted X and Instagram from my phone. I’ll spend my newfound time listening to more voters in real-world Ohio, developing more policies to make our state affordable, and being more present with my family. I predict that ending my consumption of social media will make me a better leader and a happier man.
My campaign team will still use social media to distribute messages and videos on my behalf. But I won’t browse any of it myself. There’s a fine line between using the internet to distribute your message and inadvertently allowing constant internet feedback to alter your message. That isn’t using social media; it’s letting social media use you.
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