155: Social Media Blackout

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Social Media is so pervasive in our everyday lives. We don’t even notice now how often we are checking it. We are looking through Facebook posts from friends, checking our favorite person’s tweets, and looking through the latest photos of those we like on Instagram or Snap Chat. The question becomes, how much time do we actually spend in social media rather than building a social experience.

Every year, Kyle Reed takes a break from Social Media for Lent. For me, social media is a platform that allows me to rant and debate. We both noticed that it creates a set of bad habits. We would reach for our phones during meals, while we were sitting with friends, or even during movies. It tends to take us out of the moment and lessens the experiences we should be focused on. Our works suffers, our relationships can become strained, and our overall well-being can be affected.

If we were to drop social media for a time we would notice a couple of very specific changes. We would be more productive at work. Our relationships might get deeper as we would be forced to visit or call our friends to hear about their lives. Our conversations would get more engaging as we would be forced to do more than post and walk away.

Rohit sees some social media users as procrastinators. Not procrastination as in just putting something off until later. It is more of a self-comparison type of procrastination where you see others doing things you wish you were doing so you do everything you can to show the best parts of your life to others. “You challenge your reality” is the way Rohit puts it. While there is no such thing as “your reality,” there is your belief about reality and I think this is what Rohit was trying to point out. When you look at the snippits you see from friends and family doing great things on social media and you have those moments where you wish you were able to do what they were doing, you almost feel compelled to let them know that you are doing equally fun or different things. What we often forget in these moments of life envy, is that we are only seeing a split second of a day that people choose to allow us to see. The rest of that person’s day could be boring, or stressful. We only see what others allow us to see in that very specific moment.