Turn it Off
I did a ‘week of silence’ last week. Meaning for one whole week i turned myself off from Twitter, Facebook, going to blogging events and generally doing the whole social media frenzy that I do each and every day. It’s exhausting, I swear. All that tweeting, typing and interfacing keeps one busy.
So I turned it off for one week and this is what I learned. I found that I didn’t miss it right away like I thought that I would. That took about three days. Suddenly, I missed my friends. You know the ones I actually know and communicate with via all this social media on a daily basis. I felt like I was missing out on their daily lives and also a little bit alone. It was a bit sad for me.
However, I accepted silence more as well. I embraced it and found that I liked breaking the habit of having the radio or television on while I made my meals. I was more in tune to my kids playing and less frustrated and distracted. I could complete a thought and felt far less scattered overall. A week later I am loving that I don’t automatically grab my phone to check my email at each stoplight. All that behavior seems to leave you a bit breathless and unsatisfied whether we realize it or not. I was really surprised by that.
I held my kids more. I got down to their level and was in “their moments” more than I typically am, which is quite a lot. This amazed me. Without the constant wonder of, “I wonder what’s going on on Twitter?” I also finished reading numerous newspapers, magazines and even a book. It was all a bit liberating. That I did expect.
All I thought was that I would get more work done. I wasn’t bargaining for the fact that I would come to appreciate those right in front of me too. Turning it off calmed me and showed me the assets of all this social media but also how much really does effect my life on a daily, minute by minute, second by second basis.
