This is a common topic around here and one I've written about many times before. But I've also been getting blog hits from people googling the topic and, guess what, I still have more to say!
Here are some of the past posts I've had on this topic:
Today I'm writing about how exactly I got myself from checking social media, multiple accounts, multiple times a day, to something much more manageable. Few people can go cold turkey and where I am now has been a very conscious process over many years. I am very cognizant of what a time suck the internet can be and I want to have control over my time. That is probably the control freak part of me, a part that could generally use some work letting go, but in this case has served me well.
In the beginning...
I've had Facebook since it was introduced at my college, in December 2004. It was such a novelty back then! Who else remembers the outrage when non-college kids were allowed on and then when the news feed was introduced? We all felt like we were stalking everyone...and then we all got used to seeing what everyone is up to.
I've had an Instagram since April 2011, before most other people I knew had one. Although, only 8 years, it feels like longer.
I got a Twitter sometime around 2009 but haven't even checked that in a year? I'm not sure. I've never had Snapchat. I don't know what else kids use these days but I don't have it, whatever it is.
For many years I just checked them, mainly Facebook and Instagram whenever I was bored, really. I couldn't tell you how many times I opened either during the day but it was many. Sometime around when Luke was a baby I started wanting to spend less time on them and gave myself my first limits. I've tightened them up considerably over time. Here's how that progression went:
1) Only check my 3 social media channels each 3 times a day
This started with limited them to a morning check, a nap time/quiet time mid-afternoon check, and then an evening check. I had apps on my phone for all 3 at the time so this was easy.
This kept me from opening my apps any moment I was bored and definitely cut down on the number of times I opened each, even if they still got a significant amount of time in the day.
2) Check each only once a day
Once I was comfortable with step 1, I moved to checking each once a day. Twitter in the mornings, after my workout was done, Instagram over quiet time, and Facebook in the evenings. I didn't have a time limit on these checks so my time spent was probably dependent on how bored/tired I was.
Somewhere in this step I also deleted the Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone, mainly checking Facebook from my desktop and Twitter from within my phone's browser. This made it much harder to open them spontaneously.
3) No checks while away from home
Our 4G signal is pretty spotty and weak at the lake so trying to check anything beyond the weather and e-mail is pretty useless. We are often short on data and Matt and I both realized that the weekends we went to the lake, with pretty much no data to use without incurring extra fees, were the most freeing and relaxing. That really motivated us to put down our phones most of the time we are there. We text, check weather, I update my Goodreads if I finish or start a book, and if we are there more than a weekend I'll check e-mail. But that's pretty much it.
This carried over to our vacations - texting and checking weather is a given but on our last trip to the beach, I hardly checked social media or Feedly at all and it made the whole thing so much more relaxing.
4) Cut out the weekends
I don't remember the time lines of step #1 and #2 but I know when I started cutting out weekend checking and posting (most of the time): October 2017. Weekdays were fairly predictable with Matt working and Luke having quiet time. Weekends, not so much. It was messing with my head to feel like I had "earned" an Instagram check on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, sometimes in the midst of family time. I was already pretty much only checking Facebook on my desktop computer, which I rarely turn on over the weekend. So cutting Instagram over the weekend was hard at first but then became so freeing.
There are a few exceptions: I was checking Instagram and posting to my stories during the last Royal wedding last May. I posted a little bit to my private Instagram when we were navigating the airport and flying home from Vegas last fall. But those, I think, are the only two weekends I checked Instagram all of 2018.
5) Cut the days I check
Since the start of the year I've cut my time even more. I've pretty much been off Twitter for a year (although I did login while working on this post and was reminded of all the funny things Luke said that I posted there. I need to pull those out and then deactivate my account.) I check Facebook on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, during Sam's morning nap when I am typically working on my computer - usually writing a blog post. I track my Facebook time and it's rarely more than 30 minutes in the week.
I check Instagram twice a day, Monday - Friday, once during Sam's morning nap and again in the evening sometimes, usually when Matt's either supervising baths or putting the boys to bed, whichever of those he is doing that evening (we alternate those each night). Each of these checks is 10-15 minutes. On Wednesdays I only watch stories, don't scroll the feed.
Instagram did put in a handy time alert thing where it tells me when I've hit 25 minutes for the day, then I am out. My goal is under 2 hours a week in Instagram and with Wednesday being shorter I can usually hit that. My real goal is to spend more time reading to Luke each week than I spend in Instagram but I can't always entice him to sit down with me but I do get really excited when that happens!
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This is where I am at now and for now I am happy with that. I'm not saying this type of schedule and routine is for everyone but I do think you should be conscious of how much time you are dedicating to seeing someone else's very curated life. Nobody, and I mean nobody, needs to be spending hours each day on social media. If everyone is as busy as they claim to be then nobody has time for that! I do enjoy social media, most of the time, but I also have a lot of other things I enjoy too. We only get 24 hours each day, life is too short to spend too many of them watching someone else.
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