Social Media Brain Drain

I hate blogging. Yes, you heard right. I hate blogging. Or perhaps I just hate social media?!
I love writing. I naively thought blogging would give me the chance to pour out my creative heart into a land of freedom and enjoyment.
Then I got blogging and thought “whaaaat the heck have I gotten myself into here?!”
Let me explain.

Do you ever get that feeling, I call it the screen-time Blerg’s. It’s a kind of brain foggy, eyes hurty, yucky feeling that happens when you interface with social media too much. Actually, with email, and TV as well. Well, I think I have the Blerg’s on steroids. I mean, I just feel gross after limited amounts of time on social media.
I get to the end of my day and if I have to admit that I have wasted (WASTED!) x amount of time scrolling, watching, having FOMO at other peoples plate of food (but I only had time for a cracker and vegemite!!), I feel quite sad really. Sad that I didn’t get other stuff done because I did nothing on the nothing screen!
Does this happen to you too?

When I travel on trains, I find it so funny to put my phone down and observe everyone around me. We all look like little robots, hunched over this small device in our hands like it is our lifeline!
A while back, I had my husband change the password on our FB page. FREEDOM! How nice it was to stop, look at my phone and remember I couldn’t interact with it anyway, and go read a book for ten minutes or just lie on the couch with a nice cuppa for a short break to clear my thoughts.

Why does this matter to you? What does it have to do with blogging? Well, blogging, I have realised, is not just about the content, its about getting that content out there in the online world so that people will actually read it! Chances are you may have found me through social media. So I guess it’s a necessary evil that I love to hate! You know what, I am happy to live in that dichotomy and wrestle with it if it means I can figure out a good, healthy balance.

I wanted to write this post firstly to find out if anyone else feels the same way (lets create a challenge…erm, not on Facebook!), and secondly because…
Drum roll…
I’m not going to be all over social media all the time.
Controversial sound of silence and crickets chirping…
I want to get to know you all, I really do. I just don’t want to have to respond every five minutes to something on social media. The whole philosophy of my blog is to do life real and on purpose. So I am going to do social media, on purpose. I hope that is ok. It doesn’t mean I wont respond to your emails, or comments, or engage in FB groups, it just means I will do it between certain times of the day, and I will have my phone off (or social media logged off) during the other times.
I am going to enjoy switching off regularly and I’d love to invite you to do the same thing! Its important to me that I develop this business in a way that is not solely online because I want to be able to meet up with people and work in group and 1-1 coaching in a face to face setting and I don’t think anything can compare to actually spending time with people.

Do you have a friend you need to catch up with properly? Plan to make a time this week to meet up for a hot drink and a chat. Put your phone away while you are on the train to work and say hello to the person sitting next to you. Or maybe you could just jump off this screen right now and go for a 10-minute walk around the block!
When that little voice inside tells us that we are bored/lazy/stressed/can’t sleep so we might as well scroll Facebook/stream on YouTube, find something on Netflix to watch or catch up on some Instagram stories, lets challenge that! We don’t have to go with the path of least resistance. We can push back and make a conscious choice. Its up to us! Here’s to books, walks, laughing with a loved one and making our choices count!

Here is a great little 10 minute clip if you want some more sobering info on this topic.