After reading his Facebook post about the same I felt inclined to act on a prompting that I had, more or less, been ignoring for a while, to limit my use of social media, especially during the day when I have a lot of things going. I planned that I would put all my "time-waster" apps on my phone into a folder, and only access that folder before 8am or after 5pm. This would allow good flexibility in that I could focus on being more productive during critical hours, yet still exercise self control outside those hours. It turned out to be a lot harder that I like to admit, but did end up helping my productivity during the day even more that I originally thought.
Below are my results for this past week. I strove to take a screenshot somewhere around 8am and again before I decided to go onto (mainly) Facebook.
Hadn't quite established the 8am - 5pm screenshot rule, but did get some screenshots and did really well that day.
Had a busy morning and previous evening and by time it got to 8am I hadn't checked my social media folder. I decided it was worth keeping my rule and held off.
Kinda a dork, I can line stuff up I promise.
Still going strong!
Forgot the 8 am screenshot, but held my grounds!
After scanning a bit on Saturday, I realized my family responsibilities and productivity wasn't just during the week while I worked so I held out through the weekend.
I did get on facebook to post a weekly video that finished at 8am but even after 3 attempts it would not upload, so I kept at it and avoided checking notifications.
All in all, I'm proud of myself for sticking to it all week! It not only helped me be more productive throughout the day, but helped me realize some deeper issues I hadn't fully realized before.
Concerns it revealed:
1.) It was hard not to check right at 5pm.Allowing notifications to build up makes me want to check right at 5pm. But 5 pm is nearly never priority free, free time. A couple times during the week I found myself attempting to split my attention between talking with my wife, or playing with the kids. Had I set a time to check it, I could have effectively said, "Okay, wife and kids, it's Facebook time, leave me alone I won't be long." But even right that out now it just seems silly. I think being able to assess when is appropriate and when is not, despite how excited I am to check it, is an important skill to have in every day life, social settings, etc.
2.) I felt I shared better insights/stories, but also felt more selfish.All the notification build-up created a me monster. I'd usually have something I was excited to share, and had put more thought into it, which is great when you're trying to post something uplifting, <-OK but I was more excited to see notifications of people "reacting" to my posts, more so than share my next insight or story. <-Problem!
3.) I care too much about how others react to my posts, or how soon I'd get notifications after posting.Why do we feel this way? Facebook is SO huge and pulls people's attention in SO many different ways that it's impossible to say how many people see a post in the first place. Also, I like things others post all the time without EVER pressing a like button or commenting. The number of comments or reactions that come from a post is a TERRIBLE indicator of how much people like you or care about what you think. This fact aside, for whatever reason there is this HUGE impact those likes and comments falsely create. Is it nice when people react? Sure, but everyone reacts in different ways on are all on at different times. Way too many variables. It's no wonder Facebook is destroying self esteem or creating a false sense of self esteem. Self worth never has and never will come from what other people think. It comes from within. Does this mean I'm insecure? Probably a little bit, and I'm creating those insecurities that never existed until AFTER I check facebook.
So, what do you do? Do you disable comments and reactions or posts to your profile? I'm not sure that tells anymore about a fix for the issue, than removing your "birthday" from being listed is tells you how many people actually remember or care about you and your birthday. I think there's a higher and healthier ideal than cutting out, or eliminating things that cause problems. I have to believe there is a way to grow around them.
And yet it's hard when you post 1 stupid picture of your kids and you get 50+ reactions, then post something like 10 take-aways from the best talk you've heard in a long time from a general authority, that's very close to your heart, and get 2 reactions. Or spend 3+ hours creating a video of a song you recorded that you feel really proud of and get a small handful of likes. Sure, I like my kids too, and they're are important to me, but I didn't put any time into how cute they look! Haha. And so we're back to square one.
If I post something that is near and dear to me, that should be enough. The number of reactions or comments should not elicit an emotional response. So my goals to improve upon this week are.
1.) Be more sensitive to who I'm around and what message I'm sending by being on my phone or computer when I do get on them after 5pm and before 8am.
2.) Continue to evaluate the variety of uplifting or inspiring posts
3.) State my purpose before getting on Facebook.
My purpose on social media platforms is to inspire and uplift myself and others through an appropriate positive use of spirituality, sincerity, kindness, integrity and humor.
For updates on this project visit: http://meetjustjake.blogspot.com/2016/09/project-updates-avoid-saturday-morning.html
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