Giving up on social media (kinda) - what a bloody relief!
A couple of weeks ago I quit using social media ...
Ok, I have to admit that is a biiit of a lie .. . what I should have said was ... I stopped making my phone the first thing I saw as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning, my companion as I ate my breakfast, the bath time liaison, the toilet buddy (yup folks, I took that thing to the bog with me ... I like reading things whilst I ... y'know ... Ok, Ok ... too much info, sorry), my café amigo and my bedtime story ...
Basically, I was having an affair with my smart-phone ... it was a torrid and turbulent ordeal, a sort of love/hate relationship that lasted for waaaay longer than it should have.
So, I ended it ...
I suddenly realised after a particularly long winded Instagram scroll that left me more frustrated than satisfied, that this addiction is absolutely NOT what I should be doing with my time!
Firstly, I'm a yogini ... I freaking love yoga and think that it is a life changing practice. So I follow a lot of lovely, famous yogi's and yogini's on Instagram and marvel at their handstands, arm balances and pretzel-like asanas.
However, amongst the 'oooh's and 'aaaaah's there is also a healthy dose of comparison ... looking at these inspirational people doing fabulous things with their bodies and lives (most of these pictures are taken on beaches or sun drenched beauty spots that make your tiny flat in the city feel like a cardboard box with a hobo in it) just makes me feel like I'm lacking something in my life ... which, I have to vehemently add, (more to myself than any of you lovely folks) ... I am NOT!
There is also the fact that when you are Instagramming and other such things, there is always the underlying feeling that you need to build a 'following' (kinda like a shamanic princess ... I'll get my fluffy boots ...) then if you post a pic and it's ignored, there is a sense of urgency to get people to notice you ... don't say it's not true, dude ... I've seen formally very secure peeps post a pic on FB and then go into a spiral of self loathing because no one 'liked' their picture!
I say ... who the F**K cares?
Secondly, at this moment in time in my life I'm trying to finish a pretty full on MA as well as working in an environment that would stress out the Dalai Lama ... I ain't got time to sit in front of bloody FB just looking at what other people had for dinner or reading domestic arguments (as absolutely fun as that is ... I mean who doesn't like a nice bit of drama to go with the mindless numbness?) ... nah, don't get me wrong, there are some really cool articles and things buzzing about ... I just didn't find that many :-)
I could easily spend a couple of hours looking at total and complete nonsense ... opening click-bait rubbish with titles such as 'she thought it was just another mole ... when you see it you'll dieeeeeeee' or reading articles on things that are so stupid there is a chance your brain will calcify just by opening them .... So yeah, ain't nobody got time for that ...
I took drastic action and one by one deleted and uninstalled every piece of social media that I could access with my phone ... Twitter (byeeee), FB (seeee ya), Instagram (get outta here), even my emails got demoted from the front screen to some back office file where I have to actually look for it ... and I decided to only check FB, Twitter and Insta ONCE a week ... emails perhaps twice but not more and only from the desktop ...
and guess what?
I only went and did it!
It's been two weeks since I made that move and I have sooooo much more time! I'm doing more uni work, more yoga and going outside more ...
I'm having more creative ideas and reading more books ... I'm even dreaming more!
Staring at that screen every night before going to sleep was messing up my sleep and all the negative energy was just bringing me down ...
I dare you to give it a try ... just limit usage to once (or twice if you are super addicted, everyone gets a chance) a week and see what else you can do with your time!
You might discover that you actually find yourself going for a walk or painting a picture or even sitting quietly just BEING!
It really is a big relief to let it go ... I don't miss it in the slightest ... watch this space, you just might find me giving up on society completely and taking my cardboard box (complete with resident hobo) to the forest ... never to be seen again ...
:-)
