Connected

What’s the first thing you do when you check into a hotel room? You make sure there is wifi.
You check in via Facebook, take a photo for Instagram, Tweet about the relaxing weekend you're about to experience.

So much of our life has become built around public sharing.

We live in an age where we’ve never been so connected, and yet we’ve never been able to feel more alone.

I go from the extremes of ‘I’m not sharing everything; I don’t need my life to be on display’ to ‘My life looks so boring compared to everyone else’s; I’d better post something’ and 'I WISH I had something worthwhile to share'.

I've written before about the very depressing side to social media.

I have wasted so much time on social media - scrolling through newsfeeds when I'm bored, looking through someone else's photos, ending up on someone's girlfriend's cousin's page before you realise you've just wasted an hour of your life. We see what we've been missing. What we weren't invited to. Comparing our lives to their very public life. It's often too easy to develop an unhealthy relationship with social media.

The Reason
So I challenged myself to a weekend off social media. Two whole days free from online interactions. This would not only allow me the chance to escape any unhealthy comparisons, but also the opportunity to focus on all important face-to-face interactions.

The Rules
From 5pm Friday until Monday morning there was to be no social media usage.
No WhatsApp. No Facebook. No Twitter *tear*. No Snapchat. No Instagram. No Pinterest.

The Results
This challenge was surprisingly easier than expected. While I would normally spend the bus journey to Monaghan on my phone, I instead read and slept. A wonderful combination.

However, I did find myself instinctively picking up my phone from time to time to check for notifications, or scroll through newsfeeds to pass the time.

I felt somewhat out of the loop news wise. I have an over-reliance on Twitter to keep me informed on what's happening in the world.

I did miss live tweeting the rugby to a certain extent. I would have missed it more had we won the match.

I was getting a lot of distracting notifications over the weekend, so I ended up having to turn my wifi off. (the temptation was strong.. )

Sunday was the hardest, I have to admit. But nothing that some reading and Netflix couldn't combat.

What did I do instead?
Had a movie night.
Nursed my cat.
Crossed off everything on my to-do list.
Had two amazing naps.
Scrapbooked.
Read 'A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing'.
Worked on some Self Care sheets.
Watched a lot of Law and Order.

Conclusion
I had the most relaxing weekend I've had in a long time. I woke up this morning feeling totally refreshed, and not in any rush to check my notification to see what I had missed.

Successful challenge completed.