So, before I continue, I'm definitely not saying social media is a curse, all I'm saying is that I need to rethink and change MY relationship with social media. I want to focus more on my intentions when I go on a social media app. When I log on, I want to just post and/or check my feed but not linger for a long period of time taking away from what I really need to be focused on.
1. I woke up and didn't proceed to check any of my social media accounts and that gave me time to get up and take my time getting ready for my morning class.
Sad
2. I didn't walk to class on social media and that forced me to actually observe my surroundings. I saw people I haven't seen before, but I know I walk past them every morning because I go the same route.
3. After my first class, I did my homework for that class and reviewed the notes we took. I had nothing else to do and felt that I could reward myself with browsing through my account for a little till my next class.
4. Skipping forward to after my last two classes and instead of watching Hulu or Netflix, YouTube, or browse my social media accounts, I went to The Grove and finished all my homework and reviewed everything my brain could take and felt really confident with what I studied... I even finished the rough draft of this blog.
5. It's the end of the day now (it's about 9:45 pm) and I am drained so instead of going on social media, I had a spa night with my two of my other friends. We all put our phones down, turned music on, and enjoyed each other's company.
I'm most certainly not going to just quit social media... with the world we live in, that's impossible.
But, going 24 hours without social media does make you realize the value of presence and time. It helped me reflect and decide how I'm going to schedule my day out and helped me realize what unnecessary habits I need to eliminate.
I know I'm not perfect, so I know for a fact there will be moments or days where I will catch myself just mindlessly scrolling through my Twitter feed or looking at people's Snapchat and Instagram stories... I won't be able to help that, but I can help it when I catch myself and regain my focus and focus on what I need to get done.
When I scroll through my feed too often, it stops me from having face-to-face interactions with another. It's like we got caught up in snapchatting, sharing tweets, constant texting/facetiming, or dming each other that sometimes we forget what's happening now in the present. Social media helps connect us from distance, but when you are literally across the street, it stops us from feeling the raw connections.
This 24-hour period also proved me right that I am an addict and dependent on social media more than I should be.
It was just a 24-hour period, so it wasn't a dramatic issue but it had me thinking could I go for longer and could I COMPLETELY stop using social media.... hecks nah! It just made me realize how dependent I actually am and our society is.
The morning after...
I woke up still bundled up comfortably in my cover excited to catch-up on all the Snapchat and Instagram stories I missed, all the Instagram posts I missed from my favorite pages, and all the stupidity Twitter has that will make me laugh... and within a few minutes, I noticed I didn't really miss much, probably because it was just a 24-hour period, yeah I still laughed on Twitter and caught up on a few stories, but I didn't really care for the nonsense like I thought I would.
