Social Media Break

In the days right before Christmas, I decided to watch the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror. I had known about the episode for a while, but working in social media, I was wary of watching it because I knew it would inevitable hit close to home.

My morbid curiosity finally got the better of me and I watched it on my lunch break at work. It was just as totally terrifying as I thought it was going to be and I needed to share it with someone so I made Nate watch it with me later that night.

Watching that episode and feeling generally run down from the wedding, travel, moving, new job etc, I decided that I was well overdue for a social media detox. I needed to take some time to reevaluate why I was posting on social media and what purpose it was serving. After all, who really care about watching me make Christmas cookies or if I did a high-volume squat day? And what’s more, why did I feel a need to post about it?

It turns out that I watched the episode and came to this conclusion at the perfect time. I decided to take a posting hiatus and dramatically cut down on my scrolling for the entirety of my winter break. Because I work in social media, I am literally surrounded by it all day and having the time off of work meant that I could really detox.

It wasn’t really even a conscious decision really. I just kind of decided that I wanted to truly live in the moment as much as possible between December 23rd and January 1st and honestly, it was wonderful.

I was able to truly enjoy a fantastic dinner at Staplehouse that Nate and I decided was our Christmas gift to each other. I spent time with Mattie and her family decorating cookies at her parent’s home. I made Nate’s favorite Christmas cookies for the first time and they were a resounding success. I kept up with some old family traditions like seeing a movie on Christmas Eve and started new ones like sleeping in and spending all Christmas Day just with Nate watching Battlestar Galactica, drinking wine and cooking a delicious dinner.

I read books, organized the house, experimented with cocktails, played games, worked out, slept in, snuggled the cat, took my sister and Greg to great restaurants, had a super fun New Years, and a supremely restful New Year’s Day.

And I didn’t post about any of it on social media and it was so amazingly freeing and refreshing. It was a true reset.

I think the thing that I noticed the most was the fact that I felt like I was able to keep all of those wonderful things just to myself. I was able to share them with just the people who were around me or who I chose to interact with. I feel like this is maybe coming off like I am bragging or being holier than thou but I promise that it not my intention at all.

I was honestly astounded how good it felt to take an almost two-week vacation from posting anything. It made the holidays feel more special and I think has made me really reevaluate how, when and why I am going to post in the future.

All in all, it was really just a nice break. It let me really enjoy the holidays and spend lots of time with my family and friends. It was the perfect way to end the year and I am looking forward to learning how this experience will shape the year to come.