I'm back! I jotted down some notes about my offline experience and here they are, somewhat in the form of disjointed ramblings.....
Friday (Day One)
Yesterday when I first thought up the idea of removing myself from my social media profile for three days, my first reaction was physical. A fluttery feeling of panic in my belly. And when I woke up this morning, my first thought was (as always) to grab my iPhone and check my Facebook and Twitter to get an update to start my day. Instead, I hit the snooze button, rolled over and slept a little more.
So it's been 12 hours since I last checked my profiles and one of the things that I've noticed is that I now have the habit of noting little things about my day and thinking about them in terms of tweets or FB status updates, like "Feeling headachey and rubbish, think I might be coming down with a cold :(" or "Think I might run back to Waterloo today" or "God I'm tired". It all suddenly seems quite banal and boring - why do I need to share these things with the world?
I feel horribly disconnected. Like all of my friends are at a party to which I haven't been invited. And y'know what? The party probably isn't that great, and I'll hear all about it on Monday, but until then, I'm filled with a panicky feeling of MISSING OUT.
God it's like crack. I can't stop thinking about it :(
There's no doubt about it, social media enhances my life. It adds interest and novelty to my day.
Wow, just read an article that contained these words.... “…a bit like sleep helps us to make sense of the day, it’s our time offline that helps us to make sense of everything online.”. Well that about sums it up really. I do feel as though I'm getting a clearer idea of why I like to be on Twitter / Facebook. As someone who lives alone and sits in an office environment where my back is to the rest of my colleagues, connecting with people online makes me feel engaged and part of a wider community. It's a community that judges me on my personality (or rather those parts of my personality that I choose to share) rather than what I look like. I get a kick when someone retweets me or replies to me. It's a SUPERkick if it happens to be someone that I don't know. It makes me feel like I'm interesting - like I'm the person at the party that has done the standout party trick.
Was quite happily getting on with my afternoon's work when I got a call from my dog guy asking if it was ok if he dropped Murdoch off at my flat, rather than waiting for me to pick him up. This is fine, in fact it's great as it means that once I get off the train I can just stroll home and not have to worry about going to collect the dog. But my first thought was.. "My flat is a mess!" and I really wanted to post about it, so my lovely friends and followers could reassure me that it didn't matter. Instead, I am sitting here worrying that I may have left my pants on the floor :(
What a beautiful day. Took the time to walk back to Waterloo from the office. No rush, took it easy. Walked through the City and headed over the Millennium Bridge to the South Bank. It was vibing this evening, with an exciting mix of tourists and people enjoying a post-work drink in the sunshine. The South Bank Centre in particular was packed and had loads of kids running through a sprinkler system. We Brits know how to enjoy good weather properly!
Days Two & Three...... erm, nothing. Not a thing occurred to me to write at all. Didn't even think that much about what might be going on in my absence. So I guess once you've gone through the shakes and panic of cold turkey, then it's plain sailing.
That said, I laughed an awful lot when I logged back into Facebook yesterday morning and saw what my lovely friends had been up to on my wall.... :)
