LIS 768 01: Reflecting on My Social Media Break

                                                              Introduction

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    Hello, Readers! For this final blog post, after spending the past several weeks exploring different trends and research in social media and emerging technology, I wanted to share with you, Readers, a small experiment I conducted over the past couple of days. For the past 48 hours, throughout the entirety of April 26th-27^th, I took… a sabbatical from all my personal social media accounts and apps! Gasp! Cue the shock and awe from the audience! In seriousness, I wanted to write about my sabbatical, then to share with you my thoughts and feelings about the experience, as I felt it was a fitting final post to my blog after spending the past few months discussing the impact, both positive and negative, of modern technology and the internet in society, influencing everyday lives. I wanted take this time over the past two days to reflect more deeply on how social media personally impacts my life, my relationship to it and how it felt to not use it recreationally for a couple of days, outside of necessary internet connection and email for completing my schoolwork. I selected this personal challenge as it made me stop and think about how much social media people must use each day for either entertainment, communications or work tasks without even realizing how much time they spend on it, myself included.

                                                     My Thoughts

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    Ordinarily, when not in class, I, like many, many people I assume, enjoy posting and scrolling endlessly through feeds through a variety of social media platforms for recreational fun each day in my downtime when not needing to complete personal responsibilities or household tasks I enjoy using sites such as Pinterest for moodboards, browsing their collections of art and fashion, looking at Instagram for neat photography projects and updates from creators I follow, and I love to lurk on Tumblr, Bluesky and Reddit for fandoms of my favorite shows, movies and books. I enjoy YouTube for cute puppy and kitten videos, while occasionally looking over at TikTok for fun comedy skits and animated videos. I also still use Facebook for keeping in touch with my family and friends; with it being the very first social media site I joined back in junior high with my friends, I still have some nostalgia for it, despite the cringe from looking at my old posts from years past. I like to think of myself as not having an addiction to social media, as I feel as though I have a balance of using the internet for both work and recreational purposes. However, when looking back at the different sites and apps I use everyday whenever I need a break from my studies or just want to decompose after a long day, it’s undeniable I do use a lot of sites.

                                                         Conclusion

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    When I took my small sabbatical for two days, I have to admit, it was more difficult than I had anticipated. While I have been busy with my coursework for finals, out of habit, when on a break, I would reach for my phone or have to stop myself from clicking on social media tabs on my computer, it’s almost like instinct or a knee-jerk reaction to turn on social media platforms when relaxing in my personal life. It’s honestly surprising to stop and really reflect on how often I just browse and scroll through social media so often without considering it. By the second day, it was easier though, to go for my social media accounts when I was looking for entertainment, spending time with my family, playing with my dog, doing household chores and just doing non-social media activities helped with the social media sabbatical. While I have gone back to using social media again, I think this was a good experience for me, as I think reminds me to take breaks now and again from social media for my well-being. Would I recommend other people, such as you, Readers, take your own social media sabbatical for a day or two> I would. I think its good for everyone to just unplug once in a while, either to go outside or just find another, non-internet activity and hobby to do in one’s spare time. I think we, as a society, spend so much time with electronics, the internet and social media, we forget at times how beneficial it can be to just step back and take breaks for our mental health and well-being as individuals. Ideally, a balance with screen-time should be strived towards, even if it seems difficult at times.