No Social Networks For Lent: Day 1


I came into work with the resounding request from my coworkers: “How was no social media today?” Yep- I’ve given up Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, basically anything social and networky, for Lent (from today, 2/22 to 4/8 for those non-Catholics). The idea is religious and a social experiment. I have a great post on it in G+ if you want to click over there to http://plus.google.com/banane (can’t verify because I’m ignoring G+).

The idea is to give up something that you enjoy, in a way reflecting martyrdom as well as just re-appreciating, re-calibrating what we have. It’s not, as one friend said, a New Year’s Eve Resolution, though a lot of people think that. Traditionally you give up meat, as a kid we gave up sugar. Neither are bad for you, it’s just practicing deprivation, like fasting for Ramadan. As a social experiment, I’m seeing if it affects my relationships with others. Whether virtual fills a need that in-real-life (IRL) does. I have a lot of theories about this. Which, I can explore here on my blog, painstakingly, in my 40 days off social media.

The first thing that happened: after returning from a lecture last night, I played Words WIth Friends, then did the dishes. Checked phone messages (had left my phone home during the day). Because of this, the next morning walked over to a neighbor and chatted with her about some local trees that needed help. We made a date. I also attended the lecture yesterday because, in part, I knew I wouldn’t see that friend online for a month or so. So you can’t say that I really did these things because I knew I was going off SM, but it did impact my reasoning for not flaking.

Another huge reason I’m going off SM as a time waster: need to finish my novel Woodward’s Gardens. So, we’ll see if that gets done.