My husband, Christopher, is currently taking a bit of a social media break. Actually, I think it’s mostly a break from FB.
I’ve taken a social media break before, as well. Now I’m doing it again (and have been, since late January).
I’m mainly staying away from FB, although I’m starting to wonder if I should try avoiding some other places like Tumblr and Twitter, too. *laughs* I don’t actually get much socializing — the Internet is mostly how I stay in touch with people. So any social media break can be pretty lonely for me.
I didn’t really intend to do this, but found I’ve been having trouble focusing and spending way too much time on FB pages. I don’t really use FB like I used to anymore (I won’t bore everyone by going into detail, but I mostly hang out on pages these days), and it’s been a blast making new friends and having fun chatting and being silly.
Things have slowed down a bit since this past December however, and I kept finding myself sticking around “just a little longer” in case chatting started back up. It sometimes seemed like the fun started happening when I finally did wander away to get some work done, and over when I came back for a break. I figured, if things are mostly quiet for now I might as well just tell myself to get to work and not allow myself to be on there at all regardless of missing out on fun or not.
Things have also been a little different for me since last year too. I’ve added another hobby to the mix, and sometimes I have to start and stop each randomly, which messes with my focus and even my confidence. I’ve still not fully recovered past skills and practice from my very long art break, and sewing is my newer hobby. It seems like each time I stop one to work on the other, it takes me a while to gain enough confidence to fully dive in. I don’t want to waste precious time and resources by starting over too often — especially by making silly, expensive mistakes! With sewing, I can be slow, and while I was fast in the past with art I am forcing myself to try to push myself more and do a better job than I used to (quality over quantity, which is something I do hope to accomplish with all my hobbies, if possible). Struggling to get myself in the mood to even think about doing hobbies I supposedly (and do!) love and enjoy shouldn’t take even more time, slowing down progress more than ever.
I honestly found myself getting angry and annoyed at each hobby for interfering with the other. Plus, I’ve been finding other bad habits trying to come back that I do not want to allow in my life again.
So I guess I’m giving myself a little time out. No fun treats until I get certain tendencies and habits under control again. Plus, hopefully making some deadlines that are coming up way too fast! (Of course, it would help if I didn’t get sick within a week or so of taking said break to make a big push on projects. Typical!)
I’m honestly not sure how long I am staying away. Well, I have two potential dates, but I’m not telling anyone else except Christopher. That way, if I decide to come back sooner or stay away longer, I can change the goal as needed. I’m still monitoring things enough to make sure nothing is wrong with with my FB, or someone isn’t trying to get in touch with me for some reason. Otherwise… see you all there when I’m back from my break!
For me, the break was easy. It wasn’t even so much, “If I hear one more homophobic chucklehead going on about Duck Dynasty,” because I’ve hidden/deleted most of them. But it was friends going on about how tired they were about hearing about whatever manufactured rage du jour was en vogue…only to then go on about the very rage they were tired of hearing about.
In your case, I think it was a harder decision since you’ve been able to block ALL that out, and focus on groups and things you love most. But yes, when you wait for FB to entertain…it’s not that good. Or rather, if you’re not doing the things you want to do because something might happen online…not good. (We don’t watch TV or do half the things many do to kill time, so really…no harm being online unless it gets in the way of things.)
I’m glad to see you finishing some projects, and look forward to seeing the art you’re working on as I type this 🙂
Yup, I’ve managed to make things work for me and mostly block out the things I do not want bombarding me. 😉
And as far as the waiting to be entertained thing, I just want to clarify — I don’t expect others to entertain me. I just enjoyed last year so very much, and it became a big habit/hobby/enjoyment/social thing for me. The folks we’re chatting about (sorry for those who have no idea what we are going on about — would take a little too long to explain), I very much appreciated everything they did and the friendships I made. But I also know it takes a *lot* of time to do and they have lives outside of FB. I don’t want to come across that I’m expecting certain things… just that if things have changed a bit and activity has slowed slightly, then perhaps it’s time I made a few adjustments to my schedule. I know the fun will end eventually in some form or other, so I need to be prepared for that in any case. Regardless, if they are reading this, I hope they know how much I’ve appreciated all they have done and am thankful for the fun and friendships I’ve had so far. I know it’s not over yet, and may not be like it was last year… so I need to figure out how to approach my schedule and make the most of the time I have to work with and see what I can get done in the meantime.
And I desperately need to get some of those sketches enlarged and ready for transferring — I keep working on *new* pieces, because I can’t work on the things I’ve needed to work on since last summer. Had a close call with another artist’s fan art that was somewhat similar to one I did last summer and thankfully it’s different enough I still want to finish it. I don’t want to end up tossing out pieces from my To Do pile, simply because I see something else close enough that I lose interest or… just that I’ve lost interest due to waiting too long. 🙂