It may sound silly but the time has come for me to try and step away from my social media addiction. By definition an addiction is "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming" and sadly for me I think facebook fits the bill. I have been an active participant since I got my account when I was in college in 2004. That's almost 7 years of my life that I have at minimum once per day visited a website and spent time reading, updating, and connecting with others. WHOA!
That was staggering to me when I first made the realization and is still quite unbelievable and slightly embarrassing to say. In talking to a friend I saw how much I compared my life status and the things I did to others. It can have the power to instill feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, and anxiousness. On the flip side it can keep me updated on the things that perhaps people don't have the time to personally share with me. The moment by moment happenings of others' lives has been at my fingertips to the point that I check up with my news feed almost unconsciously. It's habitual.
Here's the plan: For 40 days I am deactivating my account (which preserves all my photos posted, status updates, friends, and profile) to see what kind of effect it has. During that time I will blog on different topics related to the site so that I can form an end conclusion as to whether or not it is something worth spending so much time on (I probably already know the answer to this). I imagine this experiment will show me that I can survive without knowing more than I ever wanted to about people. I'm certain it will also reveal things about myself that I hadn't noticed. After this weekend of being unable to have cell phone service I'm more than positive that I will be okay- but I know I'll miss seeing all the photos posted from our retreat!
Ready? Let's go!
