It is hard today not to hear about how social media is "ruining our lives" from a news report or article. While I don't think that is the case, I do think there are way too many signals and notifications that are distracting us daily. I have slowly been trying to step back from social media over the past few years. Thus far I have turned off all notifications on my phone, made Facebook only for Family and work purposes such as .NET Community Standups, and I disabled my Instagram account. So far I am pretty happy with the results of this and I find myself scrolling less and less. However, on a recent trip out to the Olympic Peninsula, something stood out besides the beautiful landscape.
We found ourselves randomly scrolling through random feeds of apps on our weekend getaway during some of our downtimes. This isn't an issue at all, but we started to question why we were doing it. I mean is there something so important on Twitter that I must know right now? For Heather, it was her Facebook feed where she gets the same scrolling satisfaction that I get. We don't ever really post anything from our phones except for a response here or there. This all could have waited until the next time we were at a computer. So that is when we thought.... what if we just deleted the app from our phones? Like why not? We would keep our accounts as we do like the platforms, but if the icon didn't exist to launch the app then we wouldn't have the urge. So, we did it!
Today is day two of a Twitter-less phone and thus far I am doing just fine. So, this starts my "Monthly Challenge" series, where I challenge myself and all of you to do something unique and different. This month it is to delete just ONE social media app from your phone. At this point, most articles would say something like "share what you did on social media"... but don't. Don't do anything different than you normally would. I hope you join me for this challenge and for future challenges that I will kick off at the beginning of each month. Cheers <3
