Breaking Free

If you read my last blog posting you know that for a nine day period in late July I experimented with being completely off the social media grid. For me that meant not checking my LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter accounts (even though my iPhone is equipped with apps to handle this). I must confess that I did read email messages a couple of times each day to handle a few client issues that I knew would require some attention while I was out of the office. Fortunately I only needed to actually respond to five messages while on my vacation.

So what did this grand experiment teach me? Did I suffer horrible withdrawal symptoms and crave interaction with my various networks? Will it alter my social media habits now that I have returned to the office? Can you learn anything from my experience?

I began my vacation committed to making this plan work. Perhaps that is why I discovered how easy it can be to break free of the technology grip that so entangles many of our lives. My routine during a typical work day includes checking social media sites each morning. It’s a discipline I take seriously so I try not to spend more than 15-20 minutes per day with the three primary networks I regularly use. Altering that type of schedule was easier simply because it didn’t take much to reallocate the time to other things. On vacation I enjoyed reading the paper, catching some early morning sports or news updates, and having breakfast with my wife.

Yesterday I began my first work day back in the office by staying away from the social media sites until later in the afternoon. That gave me a chance to catch up on other projects and I found it less stressful than facing a deluge of Twitter and Facebook updates. When I finally opened the applications I focused on updating my Friend requests and Followers rather than reading what I had missed or posting something immediately.

My personal social media strategies are probably far different than many of my readers. For example, I don’t use Facebook for lots of personal postings and I don’t have a goal of acquiring 5,000 Tweeps. Instead I’m trying to maintain and build meaningful relationships, share helpful articles, and learn from others. This makes it easier to resist the addictive nature that social media sites seem to encourage.

Breaking free these past days may permanently change how I use social media in the future. I’m considering maintaining a lower profile with less urgency for daily postings or regularly reading updates. My vacation really was a breath of fresh air that reminded me how valuable work-life balance can be. Based on initial observations I’m not sure I was missed too badly by my social media networks. Perhaps that is the real lesson to be learned.