Day 2 of my social media detox.
This week I decided I needed to do something about my doom-scrolling habit.
Although I craft a lot and it takes up a great deal of my time, I would also add doom scrolling into the mix and watching shows on my laptop. I had a realisation about all of these activities combined just the other day. I was sitting in bed knitting, watching a show on my laptop whilst also scrolling on my phone here and there, that's 3 stimuli going all at once. I sat there thinking, "It's so late, and I don't feel tired at all, how am I going to get to sleep", and this wasn't an unusual thought, I think and feel this often, but this night I decided to trick myself, I put everything away, including my knitting and I decided to read a book.
I could not get trough more thn 2 pages without my eyes getting heavy and almost falling asleep, and what I had thought was confirmed. I was actually extremely tired, however the multiple stimuli that I was feeding my brain was keeping me aler and awake, my poor brain.
So I decided, enough is enough. I promote low living, but clearly my brain wasn't feeling the benefits of my beliefs because I wasn't actually practicing it. Although we may slow down physically, it seems even more important to slow down mentally.
So, I'm quitting social media for atleast 7 days to rewire my brain and try and eliminate the urge to scroll all the time. Anytime I feel the urge, I get up and do something, which isn't hard considering I have 1001 hobbies. Right now I am baking a focaccia and wild pear and custard danishes.
7 days may not seem like a long time, however I have been on social media constantly for the past 3 years and 7 days feels like a an achievable goal to me, it's better to achieve a realistic goal than to fail at an ambicious one. I feel excited to share how I go, even if no one reads this blog, it's a great outlet for me to get my thoughts out and who knows, perhaps one person stumbles upon this is inspired.
We can't just preach something, we have to actually practice it too, and I find it interesting that just a couple of years ago the internet seemed like everyone's ticket to freedom, by starting a small business like myself and selling online, we felt like we had freedom for the first time, however now with the constant changes in the algorhitm, influencers and whatever else, have we become a slave to the internet? We aren't seen unless we follow the rools, post regularly, at xyz specific time, with a reel of 15-30 seconds, that has to grab everyones attention in the first 2 seconds, has to include trending audio, that doesn't sound like freedom to me at all, that sounds like we are bound by an impossible expectation. Many people told me that if their business wasn't online, they would be taking on this challenge with me, so what that tells me is, yes we have become a slave to the internet.
Much love,
Sophia
