Life might seem to be ‘on-hold’ in the midst of this pandemic. However to many of us, it’s busier than ever because we are occupied with passive activities affecting our physical and mental health. A 24-hour social media distancing was the best thing I did to stay focussed, relaxed and organized.
Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling frustrated and distracted with the ongoing news and feeds about the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue has become a “sensational” online colossal saturated with conflicting news, advice, opinions, and statistics. The dreadful name bursts from every digital screen (TV, laptop and mobile) to a point where I felt fearful it would pierce through the screen and conquer my respiratory tract system. Plus, I became paranoid every time someone sneezed or coughed at home. Our house has turned into an environment saturated with airborne particles because we are trapped indoors with a pet. We can’t help but feel stuffy and sick while couped inside our own little oasis. Social media has turned into a toxic stream of despair and forgery.
Social Media Toxic Content
Since everything I work on revolved around social media, I spend most of my day curating online content, exploring and identifying ideas to write about. Until the descent of the evil coronavirus upon humanity, Social Media was a source of authenticity and inspiration. The virus brought us a frenzy of venomous content, “bait” headers and an endless array of useless and addictive videos: fake remedies, how to, vaccine discoveries, etc. I needed to test distancing myself from the gloom and doom of social feeds and news.
Withdrawal Symptom
I made a firm decision to “distance” myself from the usual social media outlets I consume every day including Facebook, IG, Pinterest, Linkedin, and TikTok. Guess what I discovered? In the last 2 weeks, I had become addicted to Covid-19 feeds. And, by noon, I began to experience withdrawal symptoms and felt the urge to check my phone. What’s everyone posting on Facebook and Linkedin? Did I miss new ideas to keep us occupied at home? What are the influencers saying and recommending on Instagram to make us feel good?
Breaking Free
No, I will not surrender to the temptations and urge to touch the phone. There are so many things I can do at home without making an effort to see what everyone else is doing and sharing. And in the midst of the withdrawal, a sense of calmness, strength, and focus began to emerge. I became content with the ‘life is on hold’ status; a life that was once filled with the unnecessary necessities we created for ourselves. It’s now time to go back to basics.
Time is on our side, again
Social media distancing opened up time to think, organize and to produce. These 24 hours were free of anger and anxiety, yet filled with hope, creativity, and productivity. The “spare time” is occupied with life-enriching activities like:
Coding online games
I bought Code Your Own Games book for my son to help keep him occupied during school closure. Little did I know that we’d be spending time learning coding online games together. The best part of it is, we can play these games, of which, he looks forwards to playing them with his friends.
Jogging
I finally had time to use the home gym equipment. Yesterday, I went down to the basement, dusted off the treadmill and jogged for a full hour.
Teaching
There’s no way I’ll allow the virus to affect my child’s education, regardless of closures. I enrolled him in a prototype online educational platform, which is currently being tested by the school board. Luckily, my friend is involved in the development of the prototype and was able to set him up as a user. As much as I lack the patience and dread the process of teaching a child, I am taking it upon myself to ensure he doesn’t forget what he learned at school.
Preparing all 3 meals
Why waste time watching TikTok videos and IG stories when we can spend that time creating healthy meals as a family? I told my family that part of preventing the infection, we have to cook meals ourselves. For the first time ever, I am experimenting with all these social media recipes videos and ingredients.
Live chats with family and friends
When we allow certain mediums to consume our time, we lose perspective on what is socially important, and that is time with people we love. We opt for short messages and shares as opposed to intimate live conversations with family and friends. By distancing myself from social media, I got to spend time catching up with a close friend and a dear relative.
Watching movies
I finally had time to finish watching the movie Gone With The Wind! OK, I started watching it 5 days ago, and then was interrupted by “other things”. But last night, I sat and watched the final hour of the movie before bedtime. If it wasn’t for taking this initiative to put my phone away, I wouldn’t have had the time to watch this 4-hour movie!
Livestream informational session
And yes, I spent 45 minutes watching a Livestream by Google Adsense geared towards women in publishing. In that session, I learned about all the recent Google Adsense enhancements and changes designed to improve publisher, advertiser and audience engagements with online ads.
Benefits of Social Media distancing
In summary, social media distancing is a great exercise I recommend we all take into consideration now more than ever. With everything going on, people who disengage from social media are able to recharge their batteries and fill out their boredom with enriching pursuit. Take a 24-hour social media distancing challenge and see how you’re feel soon after. We are all desperate to reduce anxiety, increase productivity, and build more intimate relations with your loved ones. #socialmediadistancing
10 comments
Social media is my reprieve. I try not to click on everything Coronavirus and focus on the positives. I’ve definitely pulled away more to give myself a break since feeds are inundated now. Kudos to you on doing a whole 24 hrs…LOL!
Our social media feeds are more negative and fear-driven than ever right now, and it can take a HUGE toll on our mental health! I know that I am one that is regularly tied to social media, but I have been taking time away simply because I have to for my overall health and well-being. I’ve also started muting/blocking/unfollowing as necessary to protect myself – something that we should all be doing without feeling bad. If someone is constant negativity and toxic energy, it doesn’t matter who they are to you in your life, you don’t have to welcome that.
This is great! I am always doing social media detoxes and I think everyone should. I believe we should all take breaks from social media because we rely on it way too much.
I’ve had to limit my time on social media, as well as the news. I can’t really escape from work since I work in a hospital. It’s been a weird last few weeks since our admission rate has been dismal. I can only hope things will improve.
Been more into informational sessions but will look at 24 hour social media Distancing and see what’s in it for me. Thanks for sharing.
I guess I’m using social media wrong then. I’ve always kept it at a distance for the most part. To the point where my friends know they won’t get a timely answer through any social media and their best bet is to get me on the phone. That’s probably because social media didn’t become a thing until I was an adult, so I remember the good ol’ days where people used to interact and not stare at phones all day!
Great post. Much needed at this time. Thank you for sharing.
Love this post! Will give it a share because people need to read this 😊
Oh damn ! I was thinking about this too. Like there should be Social media distancing just like social distancing.
Because right now there’s high chance people might get so addicted to it .
Informative article ❤️
We definitely all need a break from social media coverage. I’ve limited myself to only sticking with my usual news platforms for up-to-date information. And I only check about twice a day. I love your determination not to let coronavirus take over your entire life and especially not affect your child’s education.