Social Media Shut Down- Week 3

May 28th, 2017:

As many of you know, I am taking a break from social media.

I am currently going on week 3 of no snapchat, instagram, vsco, twitter, etc. The only social media I still have is Facebook and LinkedIn.

Here’s an update on how it’s going:

• I really haven’t been phased by not having these apps. I really don’t think about checking to see who posted a pic or who snapped me. After 3 weeks of not having it, it’s out of my routine to check these apps.
• It was a little hard on Skip’s birthday and when I went to NYC because I really did want to post a cute pic of myself on the Brooklyn Bridge (I hate myself for saying that, wow).
• It’s weird because social media is how you keep up with people’s lives and what they’re up to and almost none of my friends even knew I was in NYC because I didn’t post anything anywhere.

Some Things I’ve Learned Since I Gave up Social Media:

• Not knowing what everyone is up to is actually a good thing
  • It’s a great conversation starter. Who wants to hang out or go to lunch with someone and hear what they’ve been up to if you’ve already seen it plastered over instagram and snapchat? Not me
• Text messaging is turning into calling people- dying in popularity.
  • More and more people are using snapchat to communicate and have short, quick, and often meaningless conversations. Texting is becoming less popular and I’ve noticed that people are often less invested in conversations they’re having
• People think it’s beyond weird that you don’t have social media
  • When people ask me what my snapchat or instagram is and I respond with “I don’t have one” people legitimately look at me like I have 12 heads. Like they genuinely cannot believe I don’t.
• You will have way more free time on your hands.
  • Since I don’t have social media and I’m not a huge fan of texting, I never really check my phone anymore. I’ve had a lot more time to just spend time with family and friends and read a book (shocking right).
• Going along with my last point, this free time is great to make you stay in the moment.
  • Since being off of social media, I noticed that when I hang out with friends they are on their phones checking snapchats and scrolling through instagrams. This definitely made me think- “hmm did I do this too”. My conclusion is that I probably did, and I hate that.
  • Scrolling through your phone when you’re with friends and family is actually beyond rude. Both because you’re paying more attention to your phone than your friend and also because you’re giving them a half-assed conversation.
• Snapchatting in public (and honestly in private too) makes you look so ridiculous
  • Seriously, stop “doing it for the snap” and taking selfies in public. You may not think it’s weird but watch someone take a selfie in public then let me know how you feel.
  • Nothing is worse than literally running into someone because they feel the need to stop to take a snapchat.

 May 30th, 2017: My “Social (media) Experiment

So Tuesday night I got an email from Snapchat telling me that my account is going to be permanently deleted due to not using it for 3 weeks.

First- this is how these companies keep their users. They don’t like when people stop using their apps, so they figure that threatening to delete their accounts will suck people back in and I’m sure it works.

Personally, I didn’t care if they deleted it because I had so many people on there I didn’t want anymore, so my plan was to make a new one. However, I wasn’t planning on doing that for a while, but I needed some people’s contacts so I decided to make one last night.

Here’s how it went:

I started adding people, about 25 to be exact. After my close friends added me back- they all were so excited to see me- almost as if I was in prison or stuck on a deserted island.

It’s funny because people who I don’t normally text with- only snapchat, were so pumped I was back. I talked to a lot of people last night who I haven’t talk to all summer. As great as that was, it also was like okay so you can talk to me over snapchat but if I don’t have it, we won’t speak?? That makes sense!!

However, what I’ve began to realize is that maybe things are just evolving. Like how phone calls have been replaced with texting, maybe texting too will soon be replaced by snapchat. It’s a battle in my head between whether or not I should accept this because although I do like snapchat and staying in touch with my friends, I also hate having another app to check and another distraction.

Although I did get snapchat back for the time being, I still have yet to decide whether or not I want to get back the rest of my apps.

I’ll keep ya posted!