How is Life Without Facebook and Twitter?
One week ago I decided to take a break from Facebook and Twitter. I am tired of not having time. I arrive at home from work, open Facebook for few minutes and suddenly 3 hours had passed. What did happen?
I call it the timeline vortex. It is a moment where what appears in the timeline is so interesting that we go from post to post, changing from one website and video to another. And the timeline is infinite, as much you scroll down as much you get new information.
Also, during the full moon eclipse I noticed that, even when the moon was red and huge in the sky, every one walked at the street without noticing it. It made me think on how many distractions we have that do not allow us to see the obvious, to see what is in front of us.
I decided to do an experiment: One week without access Facebook or Twitter. And here is the result on what happened.
The first hours after my decision were already hard. As soon as I want to relax from study and work I automatically move my mouse to the Twitter app icon. Every time a thought pop up in my mind I think on how I could explain that in a Facebook post. I thought it would pass after few days, but the problems changed.
In the second day I had the problem of finding an information I already had. I was looking for a project I did not remember the name but I knew it was on Twitter. But well, no Twitter, remember? I went to Google like crazy looking for one keyword after another and nothing. And to complete my agony, the top results from my search were always Facebook pages. Finally, after around 6 different queries I found what I was looking for.
The third difficulty happened on mornings. I acquired the habit of taking the first minutes in the day to read news, and my source of news is.. Twitter. That was hard to beat. I usually do not have interest in formal media then I just decided to not read anything.
The fourth problem is, which sounds quite like cheating my experiment, Twitter notifications on the cell phone and Facebook emails. Although I was not connecting to Facebook and been trapped in the timeline vortex I could still receive the contact from my friends. But, I could not answer. Also, once I clicked on the Twitter notification by instinct just before shout “noooo. I do not want to read that!”
But, despite of learning that these social medias are a part of my life hard to change, I also got some good lessons:
- Without the timeline I could look for information I want, instead of receive information passively.
- I had much more time to read books (I finished a full book).
- Facebook does not make me more social despite I like and share pieces of information.
- Facebook is a good way to share my thoughts and discuss, until I get trapped in the Timeline vortex.
- Twitter is a good way to share information (without discuss it). For some reason I feel less the timeline vortex in Twitter.
- Without Facebook and Twitter I procrastinate less.
The results of this week were positive, but the question that remains is: How to know more about my friends and interesting things they share without been trapped in the timeline vortex?
After this experiment I think I can use social media more mindful and avoid the timeline vortex. The next week will be to discover if I really learned that.
