I'm going to try a little personal experiment. I'm going to try to stay away from my big three of social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ . This experiment is meant to go from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It can also stop at anytime. Now, if I break down and go to one of these sites before Christmas, it won't be the end of the world. The experiment can always restart right after that moment.
The impetus of this idea is the realization that I spend too much time on these sites, and I tend to express some of my borderline self-destructive tendencies on these sites. In other words, I get too emo and I spam my Facebook feed with random '80s and '90s videos that I can find on YouTube. Also, I was listening to a podcast with Bill Simmons and Judd Apatow where they mention that some modern day creativity might be stifled by the immediacy of social media posts. I need to re-focus some of my creative energy somewhere.
I can also see the irony of blogging about being Social Media Free. Some can see a personal blog as something of a social media outlet. I'm going to let this slide. I need some outlet to express myself. Plus, I don't think I really have an audience out there, so this is really just me howling at the proverbial wind.
So, on Thanksgiving Eve, I posted a little "going away" meme on Facebook and G+ with the only caption being #socialmediabrek. Yes, the irony of posting about a social media break is also not lost on me. Somehow, I felt the need to inform my friends on Facebook and my 2000+ followers on G+ that I was going away for a while. I might be a bit of a narcissist.
I also deleted the Facebook, G+ and Twitter apps from my phone and tablet. Theoretically, that should help with the temptation of checking these sites on a near constant basis for my source of validation from other people's opinion of me. I also turned off all email notifications from my "duties" of moderating some Communities on G+. Those Communities will just have to manage themselves without me.
With that being said, I have to confess that I cheated a bit. I can still check and clear G+ notifications from the main Google website. I also did log into Facebook at the beginning of the post to make sure that I had my personalized FB URL correct. But, I didn't visit my newsfeed or stream or whatever it is that the friends and followers feed stream thing is called nowadays. I don't know what people are doing and saying, and that's just going to have to be okay for me for now.
I did find myself checking my email more often today. That's not really going to do me any good as I wasn't expecting anything from anyone. I just needed something to do while I was sitting around. The immediacy of social media really is a habit that is hard to break. I'm going to need a lot of help and willpower with this one.
Well, that's going to be it for now. I needed to "document" this near one month journey of mine. I think I can do it. I mean, what do I really need to post on social media nowadays? Most of my Facebook posts lately have been music videos. I guess that can get old pretty quick.
One of these days, I'm going to actually talk about some of the things that have been bothering me, but today is not this day. I have no idea if anyone is going to see this other than me, but that's okay. I'm not trying to be famous or anything.
Anyways, until tomorrow, or whenever I decide to write next. Adios.
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