Life Offline

As you know, I decided to spend the month of May away from social media. I am now back and want to share what the experience was like!

The hard bits

At first it was really hard, just because it had become an automatic response to check my phone all the time. I would go to send someone a Snapchat or something and would then find the app wasn't there anymore... "oh yeah, I deleted it"! I found it hardest when I was bored as usually I can pass the time away just scrolling through Instagram for a while. 

It also felt weird being 'out of the loop' but my friends were great at keeping me updated with the important stuff. I think I realised that I had got into the mindset that a moment/event isn't really important unless it's shared - it took me a while to get it into my head that not telling other people about something doesn't mean it didn't happen! I feel I am once again able to just enjoy things for myself; in the end it's the memories and not the Instagram posts that count!

The good bits!

Quitting social media definitely had a positive effect on my productivity! I read my book more, and I was able to get more stuff done in shorter amounts of time because I didn't keep getting distracted by notifications. I'd say it was certainly a very freeing experience. 

As I had predicted, it meant I had to make more of a conscious effort to check in and stay in touch with friends. Usually because I see a friend posting on social media, I feel like I'm up to speed with what's going on with them - even if we haven't had a proper conversation in a while. My removing the social media element, I really noticed if I hadn't spoken to a certain friend in a few days and so would text them to check in and ask if we could catch up properly. I'd say this was 100% better!

In my previous post about quitting social media, I mentioned that I wanted to be more present in every moment, rather than with my mind online as it were! As Jim Elliot once said: "Wherever you are, be all there." I really think that ditching social media helped me to do this. Like I said, it took a while as it had become habit, but I absolutely became more present in my day-to-day situations. 

I may have failed a little bit...

Right. Confession time! I did really well overall, but a couple of weeks in to my challenge, I needed to get some photos from Facebook for my blog (go check out that post if you haven't already please and thank you). It would have been fine but Facebook had made a cute little video about me and my friend Laura and I couldn't not watch it! From there it was a downwards spiral... I found myself scrolling for about 20 minutes - oops! I know that no one else really cares about this slip up, it's not like I'm being sponsored or anything, I literally did it for myself but I got that feeling like after you've eaten too much chocolate. You know the one; you feel guilty and slightly nauseous? No, just me? Well, it was like that. Never mind lol.

Guess who's back, back again...

 *name that tune*

Now that I'm back on social media it feels great to once again be in the loop. I feel now that I can enjoy social media but don't find myself relying on it anymore. Some people have asked me if my month off made me want to give it up entirely. The answer to that is no! I really enjoy social media but I think it's all about finding the healthy balance - this month off has helped me find that.
I would say that I would #recommendtoafriend taking some time offline but you don't necessarily need to do it to the extreme that I did. It's just that I'm an 'all or nothing' kinda gal and I knew I'd find it harder just to 'cut down' than entirely 'cut out' if you catch my drift.

In summary, I'm glad I did this, it has got my perspective back on track. But I'm now happy to be back!

Thanks so much for reading and do let me know what you think about societies relationship with social media, or it's place in your life.

Love
Katie xxx

Quitting Social Media

When some people want to challenge themselves they cycle for miles or climb a mountain or something... I'm giving up social media for a month. Much harder if you ask me (jokes!).
I'm sure you're all gutted that you won't be seeing my top quality online content for a few weeks... NOT! You're probably overjoyed haha!

Why gal, why?

• I don't like how much of my life is dictated by social media. Because of the years of using it, I find that in every situation there are always thoughts in the back of my mind like 'how can I word what just happened in to a witty tweet', 'this would make such a good Instagram', 'ahh this would make such a funny Snapchat story', 'so-and-so would love this I must send them a picture of it!' etc. It's like I need to find a way to document and share every vaguely funny, interesting, or sad thing that happens to me. I'm not sure why this is, I guess it's been a gradual thing. I just want to be present in every moment I'm in - not with my mind off thinking about how to make it into a great status of some description.
• I waste SO much time online! It is my primary source of procrastination material. If I'm ever trying to get something done, I somehow find myself catching up on everyone's Snapchat stories, scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, or Twitter, just always scrolling and scrolling and SCROLLING. I'm surprised I haven't developed a repetitive strain injury in my thumb to be honest!
• I love social media and I hardly think it's an evil or anything but checking my social media accounts is the first thing I do when I wake up and one of the last things I do before bed. I think it's time my priorities changed.
• Unlike some people, I'm not really fussed by how many followers I have or how many likes a post gets and I'm certainly not afraid to be myself and make a fool out of myself online (it happens all the time in the real world so why pretend lol) however I do think that I get some validation from social media. I know my worth but it often feels like I'm looking for confirmation of this online - through peoples comments/reactions to the things I do and say. I don't think this is a healthy mindset but it's certainly an easy one to slip in to as it is things are presented these days: your value is determined by how many followers you have and how many likes/comments you get. This is such rubbish and so I want to have a break from it.
• It means I'm going to have to make more of a conscious effort to stay in touch with people. I'm going to need to contact friends directly to find out how they are and what they're up to - rather than just relying on their tweets to gauge where they're at! Often people present a front on social media so I think this is the better way to look out for someone anyway!
• I can't really remember what life is like without social media... I'm hoping it is a simpler and purer existence lol. I'm hoping that I will fill the time I would have been spending online in a more positive and productive way. Although this may be wishful thinking; I'm a natural procrastinator!

When, What, How?

I'm going 'offline' tomorrow for the whole month of May. Let's call it 'Media free May'. I will be taking a break from Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram as these are the social media sites/apps that I use. I shall still be on Messenger, WhatsApp and of course text/calls (I'm not a complete mad woman!) So I'm not going off the grid but won't be posting anything publicly or scrolling through any feeds! And I'm going to have to start watching the actual news now instead of relying on twitter haha! Fresh perspective, here I come?!

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to - rather embarrassingly - find this really hard! I can be pretty darn determined and strong willed though so I'm sure I'll be fine. And because I've made this post, you can all hold me accountable! I'll still be blogging and I'll definitely do a post when we get to June about how I found the experience. 

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Katie xxx