Social Media Exile

My name is Glowless, and I'm a social media addict.

On Friday, at 4:35pm to be exact, I did something strange. I decided to voluntarily turn off Facebook and Twitter with the aim to have a social media free weekend. A self imposed exile, until Sunday 8:00pm.

I had no idea if I would be able to do it or not (and no idea why I wanted to try). The odds were against me, especially considering I dropped my phone in a puddle that afternoon so didn't even have access to text messages to distract me. Though it did mean I couldn't cheat, but that's a pretty crap silver lining if you ask me.

I had my own set of rules:

• No Facebook
• No Twitter
• Email was allowed (I was waiting on very important stuff!)
• I could read blog posts, but only in bed if I couldn't sleep (which is why there is extreme lack of comments on this week's FYBF linky-ers, sorry!)

My first hurdle was within seconds - someone added my name to a Facebook group a few minutes earlier and the email notifications started pouring in every time someone commented or left a message on the wall. That and the endless notifications from everyone making bets on the Where's My Glow? Facebook page on how long I'd last (consensus was one hour).

So I did sorta cheat and went in quickly to turn off notifications... because what's the point in saying I was going to be away from it, if I was aware of everything happening anyway?

From then on, I expected it to be hard. I have TweetDeck open pretty much from the moment I wake up to minute I fall asleep. I'm always checking it - not necessarily tweeting, but just checking out what other people are saying. It's my voyeuristic streak coming out.

Anyone else annoyed that he says Twitter about it, not Tweet about it?

But being away from it all for a whole weekend? Well I imagined coming away with a sense of peace, a greater understanding of family time, or having some profound insight in to my incessant need to seek instant gratification...

But instead, I slept in, played with Tricky, went for a big walk with my boys (husband, child, dog), had afternoon tea at my parents house, did the dishes, some laundry... you know, just stuff. Nothing important or earth shattering... an honestly nothing that I wouldn't have achieved if I'd not been in exile, it just would have taken me a little bit longer.

It was rather anticlimactic.

My downfall came some time on Sunday afternoon when I was doing some blog work and voted for a website as part of the Ausmumpreneur Awards people's choice award (you should vote for it too!)... I hit the Facebook 'like' button as well as the special voting 'like' button, mainly because I fail at following instructions, and it posted to my personal profile.

Two people commented on it, saying they were impressed I had lasted so long... and I felt jipped. I wanted to jump up and down proclaiming my innocence! I hadn't actually been on Facebook, just clicked a button on a website. I was so obsessed with lasting the whole time that I actually cared that someone thought I had failed. Could I be any more pathetic?

So yes, it was weird to not just jump on Twitter and Facebook and update my minions followers about my every move, but I did it and, shock horror, I might just do it again.

Oh and for the record, the biggest problem was going back on to TweetDeck and finding 1000 @mentions that I wasn't sure if I should still reply to or not.

Are you a social media addict? How long would you last in self imposed exile?