Lessons from a short break from the socials.
Last week I hit a wall. I couldn’t concentrate and I ended up in tears on Sunday night. Aprill bore the brunt of what has been a full-on few months in my life. I had to change something.
In parallel with this, Mr14 had been spending more and more time on his phone.
Telling him to do it less always seemed hypocritical.
I was looking for something to reduce my stress and set an example, I removed all the social apps from my phone and quit cold turkey.
Here’s a list of things I learned.
The good
- My brain took a few days to slow down but it did. Not having other people’s shit in my head meant it was easier to put the right stuff in.
- I read a book, I’m not finished yet but some fiction in my life has been great again. Thanks to Lissanthea for that nudge.
- The focus. Mr10 turned into Mr11 this week. He got a pasta machine so made dinner that night. I’ve been home and sans phone every night. It’s the best.
- Breaking the “fill the gaps” habit. Anytime I had 30 seconds, “check twitter”. It never ends, and even though I curate my following to be mostly positive people, it’s like crack (I assume)
The bad
- I miss out on important career related stuff. I don’t consume much news very much on purpose and Twitter usually surfaces the stuff that’s relevant to me. I missed some big things that affected my ability to engage at work.
- Double edge sword, I miss the engagement. I may tweet too much and use it as a stream of consciousness but I enjoy the riffing with people that find my benign musings amusing.
- There were times I need to use twitter for the things it’s there for. I did a few, but not all of them.
So, what?
Given all that, what am I going to do? It’s unsustainable to turn the socials off entirely and remain relevant and visible in my line of work. On the other hand the firehouse of info is so distracting that it affects me ability to *do* the work and give the right level of attention to the people I care about.
The answer is, I don’t know, but I’m super conscious of what is too much now. My family and friends (hi Glenn) are good at pointing that out and have been supportive. I need that radical candour, the ruinous empathy is not helpful.
I’m keen to hear of any other rules you may place on yourself around socmed use?
