My vacation week has now rolled into the long Labor Day weekend, with my friends headed back early this morning for the day’s drive to Des Moines. The break in my routine was relaxing and cause for reflection in a myriad of ways, but one that strikes me today is how little I’ve been on social media comparatively this week and how much I’ve liked that.
I hate the training I’ve walked into: reaching for my phone at every free minute. When I read Deep Work and then Digital Minimalism, both by Cal Newport, early last year I set more limits on my social time and embraced a routine of being present and using my time meaningfully. And I got a hell of a lot done last year.
As for this year, there’s only so long we can blame the pandemic for blowing everything up . . .
I appreciate social media in a lot of ways, especially for the heavy education it’s given me since May particularly around anti-racism. My feed (Instagram — Facebook is still a hellpit and I don’t understand why I check it) is more diverse and I learn so much every day I engage with it. I’m grateful for that access to information and don’t want to cut myself off from what’s happening in the world. It’s too important. I have the white cis woman privilege to be able to disengage or lean into apathy without tangible consequence. That’s not how I want to wield that power and I have a responsibility to keep doing better.
But I also know true advocacy isn’t posting on social media. And that there are many ways to learn outside of an Instagram follow.
I also do love keeping up with people I don’t talk to as often — it’s comforting hearing some of my friends’ voices as they narrate their life on Instagram stories. But for my closest friends, that’s not how we talk and I know the easiest way is to reach out directly.
All this to say, I’m still torn. But there’s no denying after a lighter social media week as I stayed present in my staycation has put a pit in my stomach thinking about picking up my phone and scrolling through it mindlessly for twenty minutes at a time. I think it’s time to reset. Read more books. Maybe even write more stories.
I’ll keep you posted.
With Love,
Natalie