Week 2 - A day without Social Media

In lecture 2, Shane gave us a challenge to spend a day without using any social media sites i.e Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat.

Purposely I chose Saturday, on the basis that I was working most of the day so I would be distracted!

When I woke up I didn't really have time to check my phone so I stayed faithful. On breaks from work I noticed I was getting notifications from different social media sites i.e receiving Snapchats, Facebook event invitations etc.

In a way I had already cheated, as social media sites are so accessible they notify you by an alert sent to your phone if there's something you should check out.

I was content enough not to use these sites as I received no alert of extreme importance.

I came home that evening, had dinner and kicked back on the couch. On a usual Saturday this would be when I'd check my social media sites, reply to anyone who had messaged me and have a general browse of what was going on that day.

I resisted the temptation before dinner, but after dinner I opened a few Snapchats without even thinking about the social media ban. To me, it has become second nature almost to use these apps on my phone.

Effectively, after realising I had broken the ban, I browsed other Facebook and Twitter and returned to my natural routine. I failed in my challenge to spend a day without social media.

I wouldn't say I am extremely dependent on social media, it is very helpful to have in many cases, but as a result of using the same sites for so long I have now grown accustomed to using them that I don't really think about the time I use on them or the consequences.

That is effectively what I concluded from my failed attempt at not using social media for a day.