Being Back On Social Media

Okay, it’s official, I’m a certified idiot. When I last posted, I said I was going to talk to you about being back on social media once a week had gone by of me being back on social media. Well, as it turns out, I had been back on social media for over a week when I said that. If that isn’t proof that social media well and truly fucks with time, and a person’s comprehension of time, I don’t know what is. So, you’ll be reading about my experience from the 31st of March up until today.

In case you didn’t read this post where I laid out the guidelines I made for myself and my relationship with social media, here they are again, only with revisions on how things went.

The Guidelines I Set For Myself

– Schedule a session of social media time into my day for after my work is done. Ensure it doesn’t exceed 30 minutes.

Ha! Gods, this went down terribly. I went over my limit on the FIRST NIGHT of my return. It was because of a conversation, but still, that shouldn’t have been an excuse really…should it? I used my timer to keep track of how long I spent on social media a grand total of…once. Though I have to admit, mar two or three days where I was logged in for a couple of hours (again, conversations on Messenger are responsible…) I did quite well not to let it swallow up vast quantities of my time, even though I did log in frequently for short bursts here and there throughout my workday. I’m combating this though, and don’t intend for it to continue. It fractures my concentration and the primary reason I took my sabbatical is because I was sick of having fractured concentration.

– Continue to keep the Facebook app and messenger app on my phone disabled.

Yeah. This didn’t happen. Well, it sort of happened. I still don’t have the Facebook app on my phone, but I re-installed messenger because it’s easier for me to upload lengthy texts onto Instagram. I copy and paste my words into messenger on my laptop, send them to myself, then copy them from messenger on my phone and paste them into Instagram. I have a feeling there’s a much quicker and effective way of doing it…though I’ve yet to figure it out. In my defense, I did say I’m a certified idiot.

– Ask myself why I have social media and what it is I want to accomplish with it. Write down my ‘why’ and put it where I can see it.

Didn’t do this, BUT, I’ve been thinking long and hard about the use that social media has for me. Just this afternoon while reading from Cal Newport’s excellent book Deep Work, I was making a list of what ‘low impact activities,’ I could remove from my day, to make more time for ‘high impact activities,’ such as writing this blog, or working on my books.

– Have a clear purpose for logging on and stick to it.

I’m guilty of logging on just for the purpose of ‘seeing what was going on with my posts,’ but, for the majority of the time, I had purposes more important than the status of my posts, and I did manage to stick to them.

– Use people’s posts as inspiration rather than comparison.

Yes…and no. I was working at not allowing my thoughts to get jealously entangled in the achievements of others, but I’ve accepted it’s going to be an ongoing process.

– Be more selective about who I follow.

Yes. Managed this. Mostly. Improvements can be made.

– Think hard about what I’m posting and if I need to post it.

9 times out of 10.

– Always be authentic.

Managed this.

– Check-in with myself about how being back on social media makes me feel. If I find that it’s hurting my productivity, creativity, emotional and mental well-being, log out to take another sabbatical.

I’ve been doing this today and was close to saying ‘it’s been nice folks, but I’m heading off again…’ because part of me feels that if I do, my books will be finished quicker and my blogs posts will be of more value to my readers, but, there’s a lot happening in my life at the moment, and I want to share it with people who care. And, as it goes, I’m looking forward to becoming somewhat more active on the groups I host. I’m going to check in with myself on Sunday (I always use Sunday’s to re-set and prepare for the week ahead) and will report back if anything has changed.

I feel that I need to write another post about social media, further outlining the positives (because I haven’t mentioned them much at all) and the pitfalls of being back on it. If this is something you think I should do, let me know! If you think I’ve said enough about it, let me know!

P.S. In case you want to come and follow me and my sporadic posts on social media, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram.