On August 15th, my husband Christopher and I decided to take a break from social networking. We would not visit Facebook, Google+, or Twitter until October 3rd.
Yesterday, October 4th, I returned — but Christopher was dared to do it again and he has another 50 days to go.
I’m back!
I admitted that I would not take it as far as Christopher did, deleting apps and logging out completely. I did not want to ignore any friend requests, so I admitted I would still allow follows and friend requests, and only go to the sites enough to at least see who the person was if I couldn’t tell. So, I still didn’t get a completely social networking-free break.
I had enough of a break, though. And it was lonely!
I missed a lot of friends who mainly use certain sites to stay in touch with friends. I missed a lot of information and news I like to follow. I found myself a few times wishing I could share what I was up to. I could update this blog, but some of my friends are so used to me tweeting or announcing “Hey! I have a new post! Go here to read it!” that I’m sure many of them wouldn’t have even seen it anyway.
And sometimes you don’t want to post much more than a sentence or two anyway.
It did help break me of the need to be constantly connected, though. Don’t get me wrong — I love how you can meet new friends and be informed quickly about things you’re interested in. Information just flows so quickly and constantly that I felt like I had to check it as well or I’d be overwhelmed.
Moderation is good.
While I don’t see myself ever giving up social networking sites completely, I’ll admit that there will be times I think I will stay away from them — either due to floods of news articles and stressful things that end up with lots of frustration or potentially hurt feelings, or when I really should be focusing on other things with a deadline.
I’m almost ready to post the knotting videos.
I’m a little nervous about it too — this is new for me. I never thought I would be sharing anything remotely close to a tutorial, and I probably went overboard with the disclaimers. I just have enjoyed knotting and embroidery and I want to share it. I’ve had enough people tell me they want to know more, so I felt that these videos might help, and while I am still learning things like knotting and embroidery and I am not historically accurate or claiming to be an expert at any of those things, I do hope the videos help encourage people to go ahead and try it.
It was also a chance to play with videos and editing. There were times it drove me nuts trying to figure out how to organize things and keep the quality sharp enough to make sense or be seen easily, I hope it helps someone out there at least.
The problem now is that uploading these files is taking a long time. Our Internet is slow (it’s definitely time to look for another company that’s affordable and faster). I am about halfway finished with the files, but the last one is much longer than the other five. I’m *hoping* to post them all together on Monday, but if it’s not online by then, well I probably either had issues or just needed a break from trying to get the files online.
Twitter and Google+ reminder:
Just a reminder for anyone who adds me on Twitter or Google+ — if you do request a friendship or follow me, please send me a message. If I can’t tell who you are or if we have similar interests, I may not add you back. 🙂
I miss interacting with people I really know, and some of the cooler people I follow, but I don’t miss waking up to politics (even the stuff I agree with), memes, and other things I sometimes waded through to get to the stuff I really wanted to see.
I DO look forward to getting back, but yes: moderation. I think when I return, I’ll reduce things even more and focus only on the things that leave me feeling better after coming across them.
Definitely agreed on many of the things you listed. I also don’t like negativity and anger. While I don’t think everyone should be happy happy sunshine all the time, I definitely don’t like the other end of it and it usually went hand in hand with things like politics that tends to get our blood pressure up on its own — so I’d end up overwhelmed with negative and frustrated emotions instead of just keeping up with what people are doing or learning new things.
I haven’t started making changes to Facebook yet, but I’m sure I will use it less and not add just anyone to it like I would on Twitter and G+. I have other places that are more private as well, because sometimes you do want to have smaller groups you chat with.