Reading a couple of nice posts on Lisa Notes (Where’s Your Phone Right Now?, Is Your Phone Changing You?) has inspired me to tone up my resistance to the time sink that is social media.
Thankfully I dislike Facebook (the software creeps me out and the UI is ugly) so there is little danger of my becoming addicted to it. I do like to follow blogs, but it’s always either a topic or a person I follow, so there’s no sprawling network of endless connections beckoning. Email is just part of my work. However, for me Twitter is like Heroin. I’m sure I could spend whole days surfing around Twitter. So for me “Social Media” really means Twitter.
I do use SM for a reason — to share information, to find things out, to “keep up to date”. How often do I need to login to fulfill those functions? Not really more than once or twice a day. Set a frequency and stick to it.
The mobile phone has become a ubiquitous general-purpose information and time-passing device, always “relevant”, designed to be pawed and fondled.
My main “don’ts”:
- SM should not be the first reading of the day. First reading should be on actual paper (the newspaper, magazines).
- In fact, no SM till after breakfast.
- SM should not be an on/off ramp activity (e.g. when I arriving or winding up at work)
- Don’t use the phone as general purpose life companion. Find ways to push againt this. For example, I have started wearing my old wristwatch — instead of using the phone as a kind of pocket watch.
- I should not reach for the phone when bored, or in those spare, empty moments (e.g., waiting for rice to cook). We get a daily newspaper, and weekly and monthly magazines, puzzle magazines, … there are plenty of ways to while away time that do not involve the phone. I could even read a Psalm.
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Lisa notes...
/ 2017-06-30“Set a frequency and stick to it.” I have been trying to stick to that one as well for social media. I’m not a big user either, but I do check FB and Twitter twice a day at least (on my laptop usually, not on my phone, but it’s the same principle). I also like your idea of using a regular watch for time instead of the phone. Good boundaries here, David!
David
/ 2017-06-30Dear Lisa, thank you for your comment (a suspiciously rapid response! ^^). Reading your posts gave me the nudge I needed to take action. David