Last night, someone texted me they had written on my Facebook wall, hoping to tantalize me into breaking my vow to a hiatus from social media. FAILED ATTEMPT! This morning, another friend texted me about that same wall post, which served as further temptation to just log back on.
This got me thinking about the difference between having a social media profile that you are actively not checking and not having a social media profile at all. I have a profile that many people have access to. Who knows what is happening on my wall for my entire social network to see?
An individual’s reputation is inherently embedded in a profile that has their name attached to it, and most people care how they are perceived, whether that means in person or online. While I am not active on social media during these three weeks, I still have a presence on it and now I’m leaving it up to other people to manage my presence. This makes me feel oddly vulnerable. While I trust that someone would inform me if there was something damaging on one of my social media profiles, I am feeling less and less in control as the experiment goes on, and I’m only on day three.
On a more positive note, I have noticed good changes in my day to day life. I more actively schedule out my free time. I saw some friends when I usually don’t on a week night (so removing social media is making me more social!). My room is a lot cleaner, I have taken more pictures, and I’ve read more, too.
I also notice that I have a natural gravitation to using technology in some capacity, even if it is not social media. I have been using my phone just as much as before, but making use of apps and websites that I generally ignored before, like Pandora instead of YouTube. I do my reading on a tablet and use my phone to keep track of personal information and grocery lists.
I’ve found that people think they would be bored to tears, but it’s the exact opposite for me; I’m refocusing my time towards more productive activity.
Note this post was added to the site by a Social Recess producer. The post was written by Kelly but she did not post it herself.
Social Recess 