This week I will be totally switching gears in order to discuss a social media fast that I took part in this past weekend. For 24 hours, from 2 o’clock on Saturday to 2 o’clock on Sunday, I refrained from all social media and email, and tried to do so with texting (excluding the occasional message necessary for logistical reasons in my weekend.)
Before I dive into discussing the themes of behavior, identity, and commercialism, I want to note that this weekend was a unique one for me. I was away at Virginia beach for a weekend with my friends, from Saturday morning to Sunday morning (roughly the same time as the social fast.)
I think this may have made the fast an easier and less jarring experience for me. I mean imagine needing to look at your phone with this in front of you.
Behavior
Because I was away at the beach for the weekend, I was always busy in a sense. Not perhaps lying in my dorm room like I may have been had I stayed in D.C. for a normal weekend. Therefore I would say my day to day behavior was abnormal during my social fast.
For me, I look at social media primarily as a way to stay connected with my friends and see their day to day activities. My greater friend group happened to be on this weekend trip with me, so I found my need for social media was less apparent. I think this certainly means I was more plugged into the real world for the weekend. I found myself having conversations I certainly would not have had otherwise with people I would not have spoken to otherwise.
I had little to no alone time or “bored” time over the course of the 24 hours, but found myself feeling somewhat naked without my phone. I kept it in my bag for most the trip and would often think I was forgetting something when moving from place to place. The fast certainly made me realized the presence of the roughly 5 inch object always in my left pocket is ingrained in my psyche. I noticed an extremely common time for my friends to use their phones was either waitingin a line or waiting for food to come at a restaurant. At these points I certainly became slightly frustrated as I did not have access to my technology while other people were immersed in theirs.
Identity
When it comes to identity, this weekend made me realize that being constantly plugged in to social media makes me anxious. While there is not necessarily something to be anxious about, the implicit need to compulsively check all forms of social media every few minutes is alarming, it is almost like a nervous tick. While I was able to not spend the day posting things, I found myself still thinking about what I was going to post the next day. While this is not surprising to me, I think this just goes to show how ingrained I am in my various platforms. Taking a break was very refreshing, however when I returned to my social media at 2 o’clock on Sunday, I found myself feeling “behind” in a sense.
Commercialism.. or not?
Commercialism, in my own personal belief, takes a small role in my social media usage. Perhaps it occurs in ways that I myself have no observed or are aware of, but I like to use my social as a way of staying in touch more than anything. I post on Instagram once every month or so, Snapchat story maybe once every two weeks, and almost never on Facebook. Yet I simultaneously spend probably well over three hours on these apps each day. While I may be commercial in my consumption choice, I am not in my production efforts.
A quick look at some of my own Instagram analytics below shows the infrequency of my posting, despite my extremely frequent checking of my news feed.
Overall, this fast from social media has not only taught me how I interact with it, but also how I can live without it.
Finally, before signing off my blog for the semester it is only fitting to end with some soccer content… specifically Lionel Messi’s winning goal over arch rival Real Madrid today. Check it out below.
The Football Times 