I recently shared my thoughts about a social media fast that I tried out. I cut out Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit for two weeks (and a few other sites that were distracting).
Overall, my feeling at the end of the two weeks was that it didn’t radically change my life.
Sure, I came away knowing that social media wasn’t a big problem in my life, which is good. And I got more done, felt more focused, and was more present.
But not in a life changing way.
And that was fine.
A Bigger Change
Now it’s been two weeks since I “broke my fast”.
And I realize that it made a more permanent change. While I returned to reddit to engage with communities around my interests (Minecraft, Mormonism), I haven’t gotten back into Facebook or Twitter. Sure, I’ve checked them out, but I have to remind myself to.
I broke my default habit of opening up Twitter when I have down time.
And that feels significant.
Not necessarily good or bad. But significant.
I have curated my twitter feed so its full of people who inspire me. So I miss out on some of that now.
But they also have normal lives and share all kinds of things that aren’t relevant to me, or are distracting, or occasionally anger me.
And I miss out on that too.
Social Media Is Like Coffee
The lesson for me is similar to one that I’ve learned with coffee recently.
I didn’t start drinking coffee until just a couple years ago.
In that time, I’ve cut it out twice, not to stop entirely, but to reset my tolerance and make sure I wasn’t becoming dependent.
That reset is good for anything that is habit forming.
Especially if it has both benefits and drawbacks, which I believe is true for coffee and social media.
When I do quit coffee, resetting my tolerance in that way leads to a change as I pick it back up again.
I become more conscious about my choice to have some.
Just like I have with Twitter and Facebook.