Social Media Change
During this upcoming week, I will be officially leaving Facebook.
Why?
Well, It started with an increased awareness of how much my information was being used by FB to make money through advertising and how little I was actually seeing genuine community. I'd already purged many individuals I no longer kept in touch with and/or who had become merely acquaintances a mere 18 months ago - ~700 people removed over the course of a couple days. Even from the remaining 450, I only saw posts from a small handful and I found myself gravitating more towards interest-based groups to find a modicum of interaction that was lacking elsewhere.
During that time, though, I also began to become increasingly aware of how much I used my phone, whether social media or the single android game I have, to fill any measure of downtime. I was checking my phone while in line at the store, waiting for an airplane, supervising Squirt while he's playing, sitting at a red light... the list goes on. Some of these moments might be considered trivial, but I realised I was also missing potentially significant moments with my family, wasting time I could be using to do work, and wasting time I could be using to actually rest.
The more I think about my pending disconnect date, the more I'm looking forward to it:
Why?
Well, It started with an increased awareness of how much my information was being used by FB to make money through advertising and how little I was actually seeing genuine community. I'd already purged many individuals I no longer kept in touch with and/or who had become merely acquaintances a mere 18 months ago - ~700 people removed over the course of a couple days. Even from the remaining 450, I only saw posts from a small handful and I found myself gravitating more towards interest-based groups to find a modicum of interaction that was lacking elsewhere.
During that time, though, I also began to become increasingly aware of how much I used my phone, whether social media or the single android game I have, to fill any measure of downtime. I was checking my phone while in line at the store, waiting for an airplane, supervising Squirt while he's playing, sitting at a red light... the list goes on. Some of these moments might be considered trivial, but I realised I was also missing potentially significant moments with my family, wasting time I could be using to do work, and wasting time I could be using to actually rest.
The more I think about my pending disconnect date, the more I'm looking forward to it:
- I've already deleted FB from my phone, along with my other social media apps, and put my bible app, ebook reader, and news/RSS feed reader where my social media used to be.
- I found myself reminiscing today about what I used to do before having a smartphone (carry a book, start conversation, listen to music)
- I found myself even reminiscing about what I used to do before even having a personal laptop (play family games, read books, play instruments, cycle)
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