14(1)
About 2 weeks back, I started off a challenge to be blind to any form of social media whatsoever. That includes Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And it was a great experience to be blind again. We were blind to it only a decade back. What makes us different now?
I'm going to admit something before I go. I did cheat in the period of 14 days. I uploaded a photo right on the first day of the challenge. I took a peek on Twitter sometimes when I'm on the computer. Note. On the computer. Never did I use Twitter or Facebook on my mobile. Which, itself is a great achievement as about 60% of my usage of them are from my phone. Even now when the challenge has ended, my usage of them on my mobile is lesser than before. And I never really got off Tumblr.
But other than that, it was good! It was mentally good as well as physically good. Before this, I would go to bed at around 12 and just scroll through meaningless things on Twitter / 9gag and not sleep until at least an hour later. And that is an understatement, to say the least. But after that, I've managed to not do that any more. Albeit, on the first day "back", I did went and did the same. But after that, no more.
During the first few days of the challenge, there were so many things and that happened and I've come to terms something terrifying. I was so accustomed to Twitter that whenever something significant happened, my mind instantly go onto "twitter" mode and trying to put it into sentences less than 140 words. It was scary. And fortunately, I've managed to trimmed that down a bit and it isn't happening as frequent as before now.
Ultimately, the challenge made me happy. I wasn't as clingy to my technology as much. Which is a major point for relieve. And I hope to do this once again. I know it's not going to be a permanent thing but who knows, maybe I can do a Paul Miller and not use the internet for 12 months? Here's a fantastic post on 9gag about someone who went into solitude for years.
I'm going to admit something before I go. I did cheat in the period of 14 days. I uploaded a photo right on the first day of the challenge. I took a peek on Twitter sometimes when I'm on the computer. Note. On the computer. Never did I use Twitter or Facebook on my mobile. Which, itself is a great achievement as about 60% of my usage of them are from my phone. Even now when the challenge has ended, my usage of them on my mobile is lesser than before. And I never really got off Tumblr.
But other than that, it was good! It was mentally good as well as physically good. Before this, I would go to bed at around 12 and just scroll through meaningless things on Twitter / 9gag and not sleep until at least an hour later. And that is an understatement, to say the least. But after that, I've managed to not do that any more. Albeit, on the first day "back", I did went and did the same. But after that, no more.During the first few days of the challenge, there were so many things and that happened and I've come to terms something terrifying. I was so accustomed to Twitter that whenever something significant happened, my mind instantly go onto "twitter" mode and trying to put it into sentences less than 140 words. It was scary. And fortunately, I've managed to trimmed that down a bit and it isn't happening as frequent as before now.
Ultimately, the challenge made me happy. I wasn't as clingy to my technology as much. Which is a major point for relieve. And I hope to do this once again. I know it's not going to be a permanent thing but who knows, maybe I can do a Paul Miller and not use the internet for 12 months? Here's a fantastic post on 9gag about someone who went into solitude for years."I was completely free."
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