In mid-2014 I took a two week break from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. In October 2014 I took a 30-day social break and wrote about why I was doing it when I had hit the midway point*. I feel like it is time to take another break and this time I think it will be for 60 days. Each time I’ve taken some time off from these services it has been pretty great. Here are my reasons for wanting a break this time.
Not everyone uses Twitter the way that I do — I read every single Tweet I subscribe to. So with Twitter I always feel so far behind and I feel a need to keep up. When I take a break I don’t feel so far behind and my brain isn’t nagging me to look.
With Facebook I regret looking at it almost every single time. I do not know why but people share the craziest, spammiest, crappiest stuff on there. “Paste this to show that you are listening to me!” It is like having the worst, most needy, friends in the world. Weird. It is really, really weird.
Instagram is going to be the toughest for me to ignore for 60 days. I’m just starting to hit my stride over there I think. What I mean by that is… I post a few photos per week, I look at it a few times a day, and I feel like I’m enjoying using it. However, I cannot possibly look at it enough to keep up. I miss photos in my timeline all the time. Instagram doesn’t save the point where you left off so I’m constantly missing photos and friends and family will ask “Did you see that photo?” and I almost always have to say no.
Also in that October 2014 post I wrote:
Where would I be without Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Would I think my life was more or less enriched if I had never discovered them at all? I don’t know.
I still think about this. I know many people who have never signed up to any of these services and from what I can tell they haven’t missed out on anything in life. In fact, there is a good chance they are better for it. Maybe we’re all deluding ourselves into thinking there is any value in these services because we want to feel connected to someone or something while we sit and type away on our stupid keyboards?
* I recommend reading that post again. It has some thoughts in it that still ring so very true today for me. Side note: I love having a blog that I can look back at things like this.