My social media diet

When I did my social media diet last weekend, it coincided with the weekend we were going away for my cousin's wedding. Because of this, I personally didn't find the social media diet very difficult at all because I had no internet connection available for the majority of the weekend anyway. I began my diet on Friday morning and was tempted to push back my start time after we got to the hotel and I realised there was free Wi-Fi, but I resisted and, surprisingly, did not cheat once while we were there (as long as downloading a podcast doesn't count as cheating, fingers crossed). I also may have cheated very early on Friday when we stopped at a rest stop, but I can't remember properly. I remember thinking that I could check for a reply to a message from my friend, but I also remember thinking that it was still early in the morning and she probably hadn't replied, and so I can't clearly remember whether I actually checked or not. Nobody really missed me, as I was with my family the whole weekend and my friends knew where I was going, as well as the fact that I don't have a very vocal presence online in the first place and my online messages tend to be very intermittent. I rarely use Facebook and it is very rare for me to get messages on Tumblr, so I don't believe that there was anyone who was concerned about my whereabouts or my sudden "disappearance" from the internet. I think that I should probably try this experiment again, but on a weekend where I'm not without internet already so that I can actually test my willpower properly.

I don't really think that this experience has changed my social media habits in any way, mostly due to how easy it was for me to walk away in the first place. I also find that it's not that hard to ignore my usual social media haunts when I have something else to occupy myself with, such as family get-togethers or other gatherings or outings. I do believe that a lot of communication is migrating to the internet, but I also believe that there is a spectrum for everything. For example, there is obviously a difference in the use of social media between different age groups, as many older people may not know how to use a computer at all, but there can also be differences in how much individuals use social media within the age groups themselves. There are some teenagers and twenty-somethings that may seem like they have their eyes constantly glued to a screen, while there are others who never seem to touch an electronic device unless it is absolutely necessary to whatever task they are doing. I myself will probably not change my social media habits, although I know I do need to work on prioritizing them in amongst the other tasks I have to complete.