Social Media-free January.

It’s been an interesting month. I decided to delete the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram apps from my phone and log myself out of all three on my laptop. I have a strange and strained relationship with social media. I spend an awful lot of time on it and I always wonder why.

A day after I deleted the app, I checked my battery usage on my phone (Settings> Battery> Battery Usage> Clock). I had spent the vast majority of my time (42%, 8.2 hours) on Deleted Apps in the last week. That’s an entire working day I had spent/wasted on social media. I had absolutely nothing to show for that time. I’m not much good at even the most basic levels of maths but we will call that 32 hours in a month. That’s more than a day. With sleepy times added in, that’s two full days (awake) in a month that I’m scrolling. That’s not a good balance to have.
They see me scrollin’, they hatin’.

This month I edited two books. Two whole books that had been sat waiting for me to do something with, for over a year each. I have read five books and watched every episode of TaskMaster (which I thoroughly recommend). I have been spending a lot more real time with the people who matter to me and I have been experimenting with veganism. It’s been a great month and a really positive way to kick start the new year.

I’ve also noticed that I don’t take anywhere near as many photos. I always thought that I enjoyed taking photos for the sake of the photos but maybe it was to try and impress everyone else.

I’m going to return to social media, of course I will. My public misses me. I think the important thing is to try and keep in mind what it is there for and which of us is in charge.