This is new. Different. Going hardcore blogger on this one.
When I decided to give up Social Networking for a week, I
didn’t even have blogging in mind. I just wanted to stop as an act of
self-discipline. I felt as though recently I have been much to attached to
Social Networking, and that maybe cutting myself off for a week would be good. I
feel like I’m constantly concerned with what people hundreds of miles away
(some that I hardly know) are doing. I am truthfully curious as to whether or
not I can do it, and sadly in today’s society; this is not nearly as pathetic
as it sounds. (Note: Still a little pathetic).
Rules:
·
No viewing/posting on the following Social
Media sites until October 20th at 8 am.
o Facebook
o Twitter
o Instagram
Day 1&2
Like I said; when I originally started this “experiment”,
blogging wasn’t even a thought. It wasn’t until today that I really decided to
make a documentation of my experience, as I figured it might be interesting, so
that’s why I’ve tied today and yesterday together. I may get to the end of this
week and go, “Man; that blogging was a boring waste of time”, but maybe not.
Anyway, I checked my Facebook once at some point before 8 am
yesterday, thus the few extra hours at the end of the week. The first day I
didn’t really notice any problems and kind of thought this whole idea was kind
of stupid. I hid my apps on my iPhone’s home screen, and got rid of the
bookmarks to the sites on my laptop (“Out of sight, out of mind” right?), so
that helped. I actually spent most of my day with people, so I didn’t have much
time to be checking my social networks anyway.
It wasn’t until today that I really started to feel the “burn”
of this test. In between classes I kept opening my phone to check what everyone
was doing on Twitter, only to be disappointed when I couldn’t see. Not that
what they were doing was important at all, it just sucked to not be able to
know. I think I got a Facebook notification today, but I couldn’t check it. That
was a little frustrating.
The worst had to be Instagram though. I love Instagram; a
lot. I love taking pictures and sharing them with my friends, so to not do that
was really difficult. I saw a few great shots today, but didn’t feel like
taking any pictures because I couldn’t immediately share them with people. That
definitely has to change. I’m thinking about uploading them all at once at the
end of the week, but I’m not sure. Oh well. Even as I am here typing, I am so
used to just checking Twitter/Facebook if I get a lull in my train of thought.
But overall I guess today wasn’t awful, it's just the
realization that it is only Monday that scares me, because I know this is not
going to get easier.
Twitter Notifications: 0
Facebook Notifications: 2
Instagram Notifications: 0
Day 3
Surprise, Surprise; Today was MUCH harder than yesterday!
So I when I woke up this morning I couldn’t instinctively
check my social media. Not to say that I could yesterday, but I woke up late
yesterday and I guess didn’t really notice it. I got a Facebook notification
from a friend that commented on a picture of something, saying that I should “…do
this XD!!!”. Now if only I knew what “this” was. Quite frustrating.
I’ve found that I’ve been visiting Vine a lot these past few
days now that I can’t check my other stuff. Now before you call foul on the use
of Vine, I wouldn’t consider Vine a social network, because the communication
(for me anyway) is only one way. That and I’m not following any of my friends.
Anything I see on Vine is posted by someone that is “Vine-famous”. If all of my
friends were Vining and we all followed each other, then it would be a
different story. Not to mention I haven’t posted on Vine since July (?). So I
don’t see it as being that much different than watching TV.
Back to the point, I sat all the way through my Art History
class today ready to die. Usually I sneak a few casual looks at my Twitter
throughout class just to keep myself from going insane, but not today. (Think
of the most boring thing you can possibly imagine; and now multiply that
boredom by 10000. Now you understand what an Art History class is like.) The
same thing took place in my Western History class, though that class isn’t
nearly as boring.
I guess the second time it really hit me hard was when I got
dinner after class. I was just trying to grab a quick bite before I went back
to the dorm and did HW for the night, so I stopped at the dining hall and
grabbed a seat for myself. When I finally sat down with my food, it occurred to
me that the most interesting thing on my iPhone was CNN (I had already
exhausted Vine), so I spent 15 minutes reading up on how screwed up our
government is. That was a tad “depressing”. Also, I came up with a hilarious tweet
about how they were playing “Party in The USA” in the dining hall, and it was
so frustrating that I couldn't share it.
I’m a little concerned about the fact that I haven’t taken a
picture in 3 days. Usually I have too many photos on my phone to count, but I
guess I just don’t feel as motivated to take them knowing that I can’t share
them with people immediately. So that’s been bumming me, hopefully I can turn
that around.
Today was much worse than yesterday, and I still have 4+
days left. This sucks.
Twitter Notifications: 0
Facebook Notifications: 5
Instagram Notifications: 0
Day 4
Today sucked, but not as much.
Even without the whole lack of social networking thing,
today sucked already. Just a whole bunch of stuff was stressful and difficult.
But you didn’t come here to read about any of that, so lets just move on.
Truthfully it actually seemed easier today than it did
yesterday. I’ve found that I’ve stopped blankly checking my phone as much. My
mind seems to finally have come to terms with the fact that there is no social
network to turn to. Like yesterday, I
was on Vine and CNN for hours. There is also this app called "iFunny" I’ve been
on a lot, though I’m not sure many of you have heard of it. If you haven’t, go
check it out. It is just funny little Internet things. Not really sure how to
describe it.
I still haven’t taken pictures since Saturday, and now I’m not even sure that I’m going to until this whole thing is over. I really just don’t feel
like working on something that nobody will see. I don’t know why, I just don’t
feel as motivated. I feel as though this long break will get the creative
juices flowing again. It seems like a lot of my recent pictures were getting sort
of bland and repetitive.
One thing I haven’t really haven’t spoken about this week (mainly
because I wasn’t consciously aware of it until today) was the fact that I’ve
been a lot more productive. I feel like now that I’m not dedicating so much
time to bulls**ting on the internet, I can get more done. I’ve really been much
better with my managing my workload and everything seems much more manageable now that I
have so much time. This was part of my original intent when starting the
“experiment”, and I guess it is starting to work.
Didn’t get any new Facebook notifications today, but I guess
this doesn’t really shock me. Most of
these 5 were a result of things I had posted before the week started, so
if I don’t get anymore for the week I won’t really be surprised. That and
somebody followed me on Twitter this morning, so that was cool. Granted; it was
some artist just trying to spread his name and get a follow back, but it’s the
warm, fuzzy feeling that I get on the inside that counts.
I’m glad that I am halfway through the week. I can now see
the light at the end of the tunnel and I’m starting to think that the worst of
it may be over (knock-wood).
Twitter Notifications: 1
Facebook Notifications: 5
Instagram Notifications: 0
Day 5
This is getting old.
I’m officially over the novelty of this experiment. I no
longer feel like I’m doing anything different. I feel like I’m wasting my time
with a silly endeavor. That being said; It IS day five, so at this point I may
as well just stick it out till the end.
I almost “broke” a few times today. I nearly went to check
my Instagram, with the plan that I would have deleted all of the Instagram parts
out of these reflections, as if it never happened. It felt like a pretty shady
idea, so I guess that’s why I decided not to do it. Speaking of Instagram, I
got a “Like” this morning, but I haven’t posted anything since Saturday. I’m
curious to know what picture this person liked, but it’ll have to wait. Also, I
FINALLY took some pictures. The moon was literally perfect for taking pictures
tonight, so I whipped out the little telephoto lens for my iPhone and took
around 20 shots. It was really hard not uploading them though. I thought they
came out REALLY good.
One thing I have definitely noticed about being off social
networking, is that there are some people that I actually care about what they
are doing. Now I’m not talking about Facebook stalking or anything of that
nature, but it seems that the people that I go on social networking to see fall
into two categories;
A)
Friends, Family, and Loved Ones: People I care
for.
B)
People that share things so interesting that I
actually look forward to their updates.
I’ve noticed there are some people that I am consciously
curious about what they are doing. While I am “friends” with/follow many
people, I’ve found that there are only a handful of them that I have been very
anxious to know what they have been up to this past week. I guess I’ve grown so accustomed to always
knowing what they were doing, that I kind of took it for granted. It just seems
weird to not be up to date with all of their daily activities, not that these
activities matter much to me. But really, what if something happened to them?
What if they needed a hand with something that I could help with? What if they
accomplished something really spectacular? I’d hate to not know about something
important that happened to these people. That wouldn’t be very “cool beans” of me.
On the subject of the second category; I find myself almost
depressed that I can’t be amused by these people’s statuses. Not that I have
any real care for what these people are up to, its always just been a fun
little part of my day to read what these people post. Not to say that these
aren’t things worth posting; they just aren’t important to ME (
http://bit.ly/H6STjC). To me, the beauty of
reading these people’s updates is that they are masters of their craft. These
people are experts at getting a point across in an interesting fashion, in less
than 140 characters; which is no easy feat.
Aside from the Instagram notification I got earlier this
morning, I did get three more Facebook notifications. One was a game request
from my grandmother, so that’s not really that exciting (Sorry Grandma), but
the other two were friend requests! That doesn’t happen everyday! I’m not
really sure who these people are, as the names aren’t all that familiar, but I
feel bad not responding. They may think I’m avoiding them. Oh well. Just
another one of the many “sacrifices” I make for this blog.
On the bright side, it is already Thursday! Only 2 more
days! I can hardly wait for this to be over.
Twitter Notifications: 1
Facebook Notifications: 8
Instagram Notifications: 1
Day 6
Like I said yesterday, the novelty has worn off. This is no longer
a test to see if I can do this, because it is painfully evident to me now that I can. As
good as that makes me feel, this has simply turned into a waiting game. Only
24(-ish) more hours.
Not much changed from yesterday, except that I had much more
down time today. A lot of today was spent just doing chores/errands, so
naturally I had a lot more time to play on my phone.
I hit a milestone earlier tonight. It has been so long since
I’ve been on Facebook, that I actually got an email telling me about all the
notifications that I’ve missed. I’m glad to know that my good buddy Facebook
misses me. I don’t see Twitter making any Friday night pleas of desperation,
just saying.
I took more pictures today! There is something about the
moon these past couple night that has just been spectacular! I guess I’ve just
been more selective about what I’m going through the “effort” of taking a
picture of. When I can’t just upload
them immediately, it seems like a lot of unnecessary work to photograph my
Starbucks.
I feel like I’ve started to get a better understanding of
what social networking is about over these past few days. It seems to be a lot about
(in my opinion) creating a brand for yourself. By selectively posting what you
want people to see about you, you can manipulate what they think of you. For
(an extreme) example; If you’re a charity worker who has a severe drinking problem,
but you only post pictures of yourself helping young, starving children; people will
think you are this saint-like figure, and not this person that drinks
themselves silly frequently. I’m starting to realize that I only want to post
certain things. The persona that I present online doesn’t necessarily represent
who I am. #deepthoughts.
Oh well. I’m so close. I’m too ready for this to be over.
Twitter Notifications: 1
Facebook Notifications: 9
Instagram Notifications: 1
Day 7
The last day, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Thankfully I spent a lot of time away from my phone today,
and now tonight these last few hours seem like a breeze. I’m pretty sure that
tomorrow I’m just going to spend two or three hours just catching up on
tweets/posts.
I did encounter one problem today though; apparently I am
not getting all of my Instagram notifications. Where I thought I only had one,
apparently there are more. A friend of mine told me she tagged me in a post,
and I didn’t even get a notification. That’s so weak. Who knows how many people
have said things about me? It’s very odd not knowing.
I feel like I’ve spent a lot of the week talking about the
negatives of social networking, but it was a day like today that made me
realize one of the reasons why it is what it is. Today was what I would call
“Tweet-able”. It seemed like a lot of what I did today was something little and
fun, and that would have been interesting to share with my friends. Now the
significance of these events, and what makes them “Tweet-able”, is that they weren’t
interesting enough to be told as a story. I would never sit down with friends
and tell people these stories because they just aren’t THAT funny and/or
interesting. HOWEVER, they are interesting enough where if I can get them
across quickly (In under 140 characters), people might find them amusing. This
is one of the beauties of social networking, it creates an outlet for telling
people about the more interesting parts of your boring life.
Here at Day 7, I feel like I’ve run out of things to talk
about. I’m glad I did this, I just wish it didn’t take so long. Just a few more
hours now.
Twitter Notifications: 1
Facebook Notifications: 12
Instagram Notifications: 2(?)
Day 8
Today was a good day.
So it’s finally over! I got up this morning just after 8 am,
and it was great. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning!
Then the wave of realization came over me, “Tory, what did
you just do?”. For a minute it seemed painfully insignificant. I felt like I
had just wasted an entire week’s worth of my time. So I read back over these
blog posts to try and get some validation. And to a point, I did. While I did
read this over and think, “Okay a lot of this stuff is pointless and silly.
Nobody cares about it.”, I also remembered why I did this to start.
It was originally just to see if I COULD do it, which I now
know, is a silly question. Through the course of this “experiment” however, I
have gained a new perspective. I feel like by avoiding these outlets for a
week, it has permanently altered the way I treat human interaction. Maybe I
won’t post a picture of EVERY cup of coffee. Maybe I won’t tell the internet
EVERYTHING. I’ve found that when you CAN’T tell people things immediately, it
really changes what you think is worth doing so.
As a college student who doesn’t see/speak to his high
school friends everyday, for the first time since August, I really feel like I
haven’t seen them. While this is seen as one of the beauties of Social
Networking, constantly being connected isn’t always a good thing. I mean
really; we are hundreds of miles away! It seems only natural that we shouldn’t
feel like we are still connected, no? The fact that I’m still up to date with
what they have going on is a little weird truthfully.
I found out that this little notification counter was so off
it’s almost funny. I had one more on Twitter, and a bunch more on Instagram. I
guess they’re already here, so I’m not going to get rid of the counters now.
Deal with it.
Twitter Notifications: 2
Facebook Notifications: 12
Instagram Notifications: 7
Conclusion
This was new. Different.
While I can’t say I’m walking out of this experience a
“changed man”, I am certainly glad I did it. For the first time in months I
felt like I could take a step away from the interconnected world that we are
forced into. I didn’t feel obligated to share things with people. I could just
keep a thought to myself, and not make it seem like a big event. This was a
beautiful thing. It was amazing and liberating.
When this started, I was originally just writing about what
physically happened. It didn’t seem important to write about what I was
thinking about, but hell;
That was the important stuff! Oh well.
Social Networking, as I quickly learned, isn’t about just
physically sharing your stuff. Its about making people think about you, and how
you want them to think of you. The whole thing is a mental art…err…game per
say.
I’m honestly struggling big time to put these thoughts into
words right now so lets wrap this up.
What I’m trying to say is, if you ever feel like that this
whole globalized “system” is too much, sometimes the best remedy is to just
take a step back from it, and try and view the whole thing from an the POV of
an outsider. Don't feel obligated to keep everyone up to date with your boring life. Just try it, I don’t think
you’ll regret it.
So that’s it! Nine pages and Eight days later, its finally
over. Went by kind of quick huh? I hope just by reading this you were able to walk
away with just a little bit of a different mentality. I know I’m not the most
profound writer, but I hope you found SOMETHING to take away from this.
But what are YOUR thoughts on Social Networking? Be sure to
share your Purple Opinions in the comment section below!
