There was no build up to it or boiling point that was reached to cause the break. There was no warning. There was no formal announcement. I'm not even sure if there was a real reason. For seven days, I just went...quiet.
Like all crash diets, the first 24 hours was pretty pain-free. Beautiful, actually.
But the very next morning I awoke to my first ever negative temperatures, and my fingers starting itching to share this experience with everyone I knew. (Either that, or they were shivering because I was FREEZING!)
Twenty-four hours in, and I was jonesing to log back on. Only one day, and my own silence was deafening.
I realized I was going to have to be okay with people not knowing things or I was doomed--So of course, really fun things kept happening to me this week.
My kiddos went trick-or-treating in snow (a completely foreign experience to this Texan.) The sun didn't rise until 9:45 am. I saw my first Aurora Borealis. I also saw my first completely frozen body of water.
As the week progressed and I got a better hold of my itchy fingers, I became very aware of two things: 1) how much more productive I was being when I wasn't constantly "checking in," and 2) how much more inefficient it is to communicate with people on a one-to-one basis.
Even beyond keeping up with my personal relationships, I discovered how challenging it is to keep up with anything when I'm not logged in.
Businesses here in Alaska don't necessarily have websites, but all of them have public pages. The heater went out in my son's taekwondo building, (important in the negative temps, I'd say,) and I didn't have a way to get the heads up that class was cancelled. Instead, I drove the twenty minutes in the snow up there, found the handwritten note on the door, and drove twenty minutes back home carting a disappointed boy in white pajamas. Meanwhile, the message to prevent such things sat nicely on a social media page that I wasn't looking at.
I can Google weekend events in Alaska all I want to no avail, but a quick events search from my newsfeed and I can find plenty of information about things happening right under my nose.
The fact of the matter is, social media isn't going anywhere. It is a wonderful tool to help keep people connected with the people, businesses, and the world around them. But when used in excess, the opposite happens: it can have an extremely depleting and isolating effect.
So it's up to us and our "jonesing fingers" to find the right balance: that beautiful space where we get to be really present and productive without taking our kid to a closed taekwondo building.
I don't pretend even for a minute to know this balance. But I do have a few humble suggestions for anyone who is willing to experiment with a little more...quiet.
Choose only ONE social media account.
It would probably destroy businesses to limit themselves in this way, but many of us aren't selling anything on social media--We're just spending our valuable time. Even with this blog, I only stick to one social media account. (By the way, be sure to follow The Crazy Woman Driver on Facebook, friends!) ;) Which one are your favorite people on? Which one do you enjoy and use the most? Just check and post in that one place.
Remove the application from your home screen.
I won't lie. My social media app was the very first thing I installed on my smart phone all those many moons ago, and so it appeared right smack on my home screen. I never even thought to move it for many, many years. Eventually I realized that if it was the first thing I saw on my phone, covering up that cute photo of my kiddos' adorable faces, it was going to be all too easy to click on. I removed it from the position of importance on my screen, and that helped me limit some "accidental clicks."
Choose one day every week to "go quiet."
For several months now, I have set aside Sunday as my "social media-free day"...and honestly, I can't see how I will ever go back.
Not only does this give me a chance to honor the sabbath and keep it holy, (something that has become increasingly important to me,) but it also really drives home that idea of true rest that every week needs.
On Sundays, our family gets to hike, bike, play games, watch football, bake, craft--all with my full attention.
Now I must admit, it sometimes seems as if my friends wait to have all of their babies and major life events happen on Sundays. But I promise, celebrating with them is just as sweet a day later.
Limit your social media activity to the same time every day.
I don't know about you, but I am a girl that has to operate on a schedule. (A poor, poor reality for a military wife, it's true.) It's not because I am extremely type-A, but just the opposite. I have to be intentional with the hours in my day, or they tend to get away from me. My daily planner is actually an appointment calendar, broken down into fifteen minute windows--and while the kiddos are off at school, those windows are FULL UP so I don't drift away.
However, I do give social media one of those fifteen minute spots in the morning. After I do the morning dishes and before I do my morning workout, I pause to check in on my friends and family. It makes me happy to stay connected, and at least most of the time, it helps keep my itchy habit under control.
All things in moderation...and all minutes on purpose.
Remove the application from your phone altogether.
Listen, friends. Some of us can keep potato chips in our house, and some of us can't. We just have our own triggers. (And I happen to be one of those people who can keep chips but not the app.)
My Bible study plan is downloaded in File Commander. Every morning I would wake up with the best of intentions to click on File Commander and my sleepy finger would wander over to the tile directly to the left--Facebook. Half of the time, I didn't even make the conscious connection I was doing it until everyone's sweet faces and sometimes not-as-sweet opinions were flashing in my freshly woken face.
So even with one account, even with removing it from my home screen, even with my quiet day which had operated successfully for months, even with my daily time allotment--I still failed from time to time. It happens, y'all!
Removing the app maybe seems like a strong and scary choice to some people, but it was one I knew I needed to make. Now social media is available to me, but it is not always so easily accessible, and that is the particular land that I need to live in.
Maybe even to my blogging doom, but hey...
Silence is golden.
What about you guys? Any tips or tricks to managing your social media habit?
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