See What Is Shaping You
We dive deep into your goals, including why you're online, what you value, and the personal compass framework.
Against the Drift
A six week private mentorship
For people who go online to participate, connect or create, but find themselves consuming instead.
Apply for a placeSound familiar?
I open the app because I mean to post, and then an hour disappears.
I keep saving things and drafting things, but I never actually share them.
It's the people I know who make me hesitate.
I don't want to delete everything.
Who it's for
What do you want social media to actually be doing for you? Is it business? Creative expression? Connection? Learning? Documenting your life?
Against the Drift is built for people who open social media meaning to share something, reply to someone or reconnect, and end up consuming instead, succumbing to the Society of the Endless Image and the Mass Drift. What's worrying is losing your own voice through constant absorption of everyone else's.
I don't believe you have to delete the apps, and you don't need more willpower.
Six weeks. One private process.
Each week has one confidential live session, a focused theme, a practical deliverable, guided homework and one experiment online or offline. There are no group calls, no other participants, and nothing public to show you're enrolled.
Recover Your Signal
We review your material together and find the themes, questions and points of view that keep coming back.
See The Pattern
We investigate your technology use and habits, and what actually happens between opening the app and scrolling.
Choose Your Exposure
We work with an exposure scale (private, selective, contextual, public) and tailor it to your needs.
Practise Conscious Participation
We learn how to enter an app with a purpose, notice when drift starts, leave deliberately, and create before consuming.
Author Your Way of Being Online
We design your own framework to take with you after the six weeks, to manage your relationship with technology.
“My camera was collecting dust for about 4 years, and this session genuinely brought me back to photography in such a refreshing way. It was a great investment as it genuinely shifted how I see my own creativity through practical, thoughtful frameworks which provided me with a good few ‘aha’ moments.”John, photographer
“After my session with Ruth, I really felt a lot more grounded. She helped me take a step back at a time when so much in my life is shifting and changing, and she gave me a mindset shift that's helping me trust myself in the decisions I'm making, rather than just charging ahead and burning out later. She's an incredible listener but also knows exactly when to jump in with insight that really lands. If her work speaks to you, I'd absolutely recommend booking a session with her.”Gemma, creator
Your mentor
Ruth Guest
Ruth Guest is a Dublin based Cyberpsychologist and Photographer whose work explores human connection and society's relationship with technology.
She holds a first class MSc in Cyberpsychology, with a thesis on TikTok's influence on self concept clarity and online identity, and has spent over 15 years in creative, marketing and tech fields. Her work sits at the intersection of psychology, photography, and philosophy, exploring the question: What happens to the self, and to human connection, when everything passes through a screen and becomes an image?
MScCyberpsychology, first class
15+years in creative & digital media
Applied mentoring, not therapy, diagnosis or clinical treatment.
What you get
Over six weeks, you'll be supported to move from feeling shaped by the feed towards a more self directed way of being online, with greater clarity about what you want to create, what you want to share, and how you want technology to fit into your life.
You'll develop a clearer understanding of why passive scrolling keeps replacing your intentions, recover a stronger sense of your own creative voice, and begin sharing and participating online in ways that reflect your values rather than the demands of the algorithm or the expectations of other people.
- Create from your own creative voice rather than from algorithmic pressure.
- Share without letting fear of judgement make every decision.
- Understand what causes you to move into passive consumption.
- Recognise when technology is taking you away from your own intentions.
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- Develop a more workable relationship with time, attention and social media.
- Choose what to share, what to keep private, and what level of exposure feels right for you.
- Create and participate online without feeling you must perform a false version of yourself.
- Build a personal framework that continues beyond the six weeks.
What this doesn't promise
- No marketing strategy.
- No viral reach or follower targets.
- No requirement to post constantly.
- No requirement to delete social media.
What you move away from
- The Mass Drift.
- Passive scrolling.
- Constant comparison.
- FOMO.
- Fear of judgement.
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- Borrowing other people's opinions, tones and creative choices.
- Imagined audiences.
- Feeling absent from your own online life.
- Treating technology as a place to hide.
- Feeling that every experience must become content.
- Confusing visibility with connection.
- Confusing app activity with meaningful participation.
- Losing time to online consumption while postponing your own life and creative work.
What you move towards
- A clearer understanding of your values.
- A stronger sense of your own creative signal and voice.
- More authentic forms of expression.
- More deliberate use of social media.
- Clearer boundaries around personal exposure.
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- Greater awareness of how technology affects your attention and time.
- A more honest relationship with visibility.
- A better ability to create before consuming.
- More meaningful participation and connection.
- A personal framework for remaining yourself while living with technology.
Six weeks with Ruth, one to one
What's included
- Six private, confidential one to one sessions
- Six personalised weekly exercises
- Practical experiments using your existing social media accounts and routines
- Review of your existing creative material, unfinished ideas, drafts and previous posts
- Guidance in identifying your creative signal and values
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- Support in developing a personal exposure and sharing approach
- Guidance in recognising passive use patterns and responding deliberately
- Direct WhatsApp support between sessions
- A personal way of being online framework
- A continuation plan for keeping up the practice after the six weeks
The programme may include creating posts and starting genuine conversations, depending on your goals, chosen format and level of exposure.
What happens when you apply
Answer
You answer a few short questions. It takes about four minutes.
Hear back
I read every application myself and reply on WhatsApp within a day or so.
Begin
If it feels like a fit for both of us, we pick a time for your first session.
Who this doesn't work for
If you're looking for reach, followers or a posting or marketing strategy, this isn't for you. These sessions aren't therapy or based in clinical psychology. If you're struggling and looking for mental health support, these sessions aren't for you.
Before you begin
I've already tried deleting the apps and using timers.
Taking the apps away leaves the pattern underneath untouched. This work looks at what happens while the apps are still there, so you can make a different choice in real life.
I'm afraid of people I know seeing me post.
That fear is part of the work, and we go at your pace. You decide what to share, who with and when, starting at a level that feels manageable.
I don't know what I want to say.
Week 2 starts from your own drafts, notes, saved ideas and past posts. You'll find what you keep noticing and caring about, rather than copying what performs well.
I don't have time for another programme.
It's six private sessions and weekly exercises, with no posting quota. The work is a small number of deliberate actions, meant to protect your time rather than take more of it.
Are you a therapist?
No. This is applied mentoring by a cyberpsychologist, not therapy.
Stay yourself while living with technology.
Before another month disappears into other people's lives, take six private weeks to find your own way back into yours.
Apply for a place