It was earlier this morning that I sat in my living room and finally breathed a sigh of relief, the social sabbatical was coming to a close.
But that wasn’t what made me breathe a sigh of relief, I was relieved because I finally had the time and space and expansiveness to see more — both literally and figuratively — than I had in a long time. On March 8, 2019, I made a spontaneous decision to take a break from social media for no other reason than I saw a friend do it and wondered if there was any value there for me. I decided to experiment with the break to see if it would improve my quality of life. Sixty six days later I can confidently say, yes — taking a break from social media has improved my life in ways I never anticipated sixty six days ago. The biggest take away from my time away was... If I attempt to continue this social break through the end of Lent for a total of 40 or so days, I am somewhere near the mid way point today at day twenty-three. I realize there may be value in reflecting on what I’ve LEARNed so far. And while I’m at it, you’ll learn a valuable tool to use to help summarize group meetings. Stick around!
It’s day twenty-one and I am still enjoying my time away from social media. In some ways it almost feels like I’m on vacation. You see, when you go on vacation you’re usually cut off from your crowd since you’re in a different location from them. Being off social media feels a little like that — I’m here, hanging out IRL (IRL = in real life) and my social network is hanging out in virtual reality. We’re apart and I cannot wait to share all my vacation stories with them when I return!
9:53am Yesterday was the second time I checked Facebook in sixteen days. It was almost like a chore and it took me 30 minutes to scan through all the messages for significance. For the first time in my life, I believe I am experiencing JOMO; the joy of missing out!
Skipping day eight’s social break journal worked so well for me that I just went on and skipped days 11-15! And now, keeping track of what day of my social break it is has become more challenging than staying off social media! I wouldn’t have anticipated that at the beginning of this experiment.
At any rate, here are a few additional day fifteen thoughts. I am learning: |
Author
Archives
August 2022
Categories
All
|