I’m Back on Twitter. what i learnt from a month off social media
I did it! I took a month off social media. Well Almost. Admittedly I saw a couple of Tweets sent to me via WhatsApp. But apart from the odd bit of LinkedIn (Pinterest, Snapchat and YouTube) it’s been a social media free month.
And it’s been amazing. Over the last four weeks I’ve had time to cycle places I’ve never cycled before; prepared most of my meals from scratch; meditated every morning; and written two chapters of my first novel. OK, maybe not.
In truth there’s been no major epiphany. Yes I’ve missed the ins and outs of Ant McPartlin’s love life as well as who’s backing who in the Plaid leadership race. (Ant needs to move on, and my money’s on Leanne).
I haven’t missed the torrent of transphobic, mansplaining, anti-Semitic, anti-cyclist bile that was my Twitter timeline. And I haven’t missed the turgid Tweets from conferences showing the backs of people’s heads in front of PowerPoint presentations with words like “innovation” and “collaboration” on them. You know who you are.
I’ll admit, I did get mildly agitated that I couldn’t Tweet my awe at seeing a man wear double denim AND sandals with socks (I wasn’t even at a LibDem event), but on the whole I found my Twitter-fast rather unremarkable.
I guess you can look at this two ways.
Either the world is now so connected that, even offline, you can’t escape the online;
Or, social media adds so little value to our lives that, take it away, you don’t really miss it.
I’ll give social media this - it is useful for spreading ideas and making connections. How did our grandparents promote their blogs before social media? But for me, it’s too easy to get sucked into a vortex of screen scrolling and before I know it I’ve wasted 30minutes of my life admiring Justin Trudeau’s hair. So it’s time for #NewMe. Moderation will be my new watch word when it comes to social media. But perhaps not just yet.
I’m giving abstinence one last shot before I give it up completely. My phone is staying home whilst I go on holiday. For anyone who knows me, that’s a big thing. On Friday I ran into a friend at the station who said he’d done a similar thing and recommended it. So decision made. Wish me luck.
my Manifesto for Moderate Social Media Use
And when I’m back, I’m going to try my hardest at sticking to the new rules: my Manifesto for Moderate Social Media Use
Dumb-phone Sundays
Dumb phones, or “phones” as we called them in 90s, are mobiles without the functionality of a smart phone. It’s possible to strip back your iPhone, leaving just the phone, messages and camera functions. I’m not going quite that far. I’ll settle with switching notifications and email off, avoiding the internet, and logging out of social media apps.
Night-time curfew
It’s a safe bet to say at night Donald Trump spends more time with his phone than his wife. Trump being glued to his cell is not just upsetting the liberal world order, it’s also damaging his Circadian Rhythm. Electronic devices emit blue light which can interfere with our hormones, body clock and sleeping patterns. Setting phones to automatically ‘sleep’ hours before you do, and keeping them out of the bedroom is definitely the way to go. Especially if you want to avoid sparking a trade war.
Don’t feed the trolls
You might think cyclists should pay road tax, Israel shouldn’t exist, and all this #MeToo “nonsense” has gone a bit far - but I don’t. I barely have time to talk to all the people I like, off-line. I’m not going to waste time debating people I loath, online.
Muting the moaners
I’ll admit one of my former favourite past times was reading other people’s narky TripAdvisor comments out loud in a “disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” voice. The fun stopped when I heard of a fellow Blackburnian who had complained her holiday to Spain was ruined by being around too many “Spaniards”. Why can’t they go somewhere else for their holidays, she racistly mused.
I get some people hate cold Deliveroo food, or the fact Lidl has run out of sourdough. Yes we all want the trains to run on time, and yes I don’t like Ed Sheeran either. I feel your pain. But seriously, for the love of God don’t Tweet about it. No one wants to know. This is not what Twitter was intended for. Complain the old fashioned way: email someone. And if I ever kick off like this - you have my full permission to block me.
So there we have it. Life isn’t particularly richer without social media, but then again it isn’t particularly richer withsocial media. The experiment has led me to use my phone less. Although now I’m more likely to lose the damn thing which is almost as stressful as using it too much.
But on balance, I’d recommend it.