For an undetermined amount of time, I’m going to be taking a break from most social media activity. Call it whatever you want: rest, recovery, therapy, need for a change of scenery, election fatique, information overload, a distraction. They are all correct.
Sometime this summer, I found myself becoming noticeably less involved in the conversation that is taking place on social media but have yet to take action on it. And then I saw a tweet from Tim Owens:
https://twitter.com/timmmmyboy/status/787984504656896000
I don’t chalk mine up entirely to the polarization of the election (though it’s certainly one factor), but the idea of a break really resonated with me (plus I’ve become quite comfortable at doing what Tim advises in general).
As such, I have decided to take a bit of a media audit. I hope in doing so I can spend some time revisiting other forms of media that I’ve all but abandoned in recent years (magazines, for instance). To assist with these efforts, I’ll be literally blocking Facebook and Twitter via Terminal and deleting mobile apps. I’m also going to refresh the podcasts I listen to get a fresh perspective (feel free to send recommendations my way) as well as trying to make my way through a reading list I’ve had for some time.
I’ll still be writing here on my blog as I still need an outlet for reflecting on my life and work. Blog posts will also continue to automatically push to Twitter as well. The one exception that I’ll be making is that I’ll likely continue to check my RSS feed, which is mostly individuals.
If you need to reach out to me, the best way to do so would be via email, text, or my contact form. I should emphasize that this isn’t a pause from social–it’s just social media. I am still a big fan of you, people, people gathering, socializing, and overall merriment. Currently, there are no plans to become a hermit.
Featured image: stocksnap photo shared by Kyle Wong under the Creative Commons CC0 license.
