A Week Without Facebook and Twitter: Liberating

If you have a Facebook or Twitter and are active like me, you probably are involved in the daily carousel of posts, comments, news, and shares. It starts when you awake. You wipe your sleepy eyes, grab the cellular device, open your social media apps, and check to see what you missed while you were dreaming about that bear chasing you. You get out of the shower, dry off, and check it again. Your just about at work and find yourself at a stop light. Instead of thinking for yourself, taking in the scenery, maybe being mindful for a moment; you habitually check social media once again to see what’s happening. This cycle goes on all day long for the majority of people who utilize these platforms.

As I was sitting on my couch last week watching tv, my wife brought to my attention how much I was checking Facebook lately. I would watch tv for a few minutes, check Facebook. Go to the bathroom, come back, and check Facebook. I was doing this probably 50-100 times a day. I feel that in our society today, I am not in the minority of people who live their lives like this. After a discussion, my wife and I decided to challenge each other to live as if it never existed. We were going to delete our Facebook and Twitter apps from our phone and see how it would feel after a week.

The first day was hard I must admit. My habit was to go to the social media folder, and open Facebook when I had a free moment. Not having the app made it a lot harder. Through days one through three, I broke down a few times and used the browser to peruse. After day four, I think I checked it one or two times for only a minute. As the week went on, I cared less about what others were doing and invested more time into my life. It honestly felt good to break my mind of the habit and think for myself again. Some of the things I noted about the week through reflection were:

1. Who cares what others are up to all the time. Spend less time worrying about them and focus on living your life to the fullest. I found I have had way more time to work on important things in life rather than wasting my life on worrying about what others are up to.

2. Honestly, anytime I did something fun in life, it was in my mind, “take a picture and share it on social media.” It was so temping during that week to share the places I went to, my new walkway I completed, where I was running, etc. I now realize that sometimes the best memories don't need to be shared with the world, only with the people who truly care.

3. Stop comparing your life to others. One of the worst things about Facebook is we look to see what others are up to and then we compare our life to theirs. Recently, I saw someone’s post say, "OK, you all can stop getting engaged now." Basically what that person is says is, "I am not happy in my life and I am tired of seeing others getting engaged." Stop wishing it would happen, put the device down, and live your life.

4. I didn’t miss out on anything. I'll say that again. I DID NOT MISS OUT ON ANYTHING. What I had been missing out on is doing things to make myself a stronger person like reading, learning to program, brainstorming ideas, exercising, etc.

After going through the process, I feel I have a new perspective on life that has been deprived from me since I bought a smart phone with these apps on it. Truly, I feel liberated. Liberated from the habitual cycle of wasting time caring about what others are doing that is more fun than what I am doing right now. I am now into week two and have no reason to install the apps back onto my phone. Do I plan to use Facebook again and post? Sure. Will I check it 50 times a day again? No way. Life has been more enjoyable and I am choosing to live out there instead of inside of device. Try it. How long can you go?

-RD

Parents & Teachers: Are We Setting The Tech Example?

While on vacation in Florida over break, I came to the realization that kids, teens, and many adults are becoming hopelessly addicted to their phones. I got to hang around two teens for five days and the phone dominated their life. When we went fishing, the phones were out. When we went bowling, the phones were out. When we went to dinner, the phones were out. Now these are great kids and both have wonderful parents who limit the technology use. The problem is they need to check it every five seconds as if the world is ending. I even tested them at dinner to see who could keep their phone away the longest and they only lasted five minutes. 

It isn’t just them but it is all young people who have access to smartphones, iPods, tablets, etc. We are seeing it in commercials, we see it when people are stopped at red lights, and we see it where we shouldn’t see it. Now I teach business & computers and am a huge proponent of using technology for good but it is a matter of knowing when to use it. Maybe we need to come up with a smartphone etiquette curriculum and teach that in schools along with digital citizenship?

I just worry that young people don’t know how to have fun or hold a conversation without an iPhone in their hand. We as a society will never stop technology growth and usage but what we can do as parents and teachers is set the tech example!

Parents and teachers, teach your children when it is acceptable to be on the phone. Set guidelines and rules up for children and stick to them. If you don’t want your son or daughter to have their phone out at the table, don’t do it yourself. If you don’t want your children to text and drive, use Siri voice! Our phones, Facebook, Twitter and everything else are becoming almost, if not as addictive as drugs. Think about that for a second. It is almost as hard to quit Facebook for a month than it is to quit smoking!

Technology is wonderful in so many ways but it can also ruin us as a society. It is changing everything about how we work, live, play, chat, socialize, etc. It is up to us, the parents & teachers, the leaders to show our children what it is like to go outside and play for 30 minutes without Angry Birds. Show them what it is like to go camping in the wilderness. Show them what it is like to explore with the senses. Show them how to build and fix things. We as parents cannot fail our children because if we do, no one in thirty years will know what to do when the satellite goes off…

-RD