At times the interstate in Florida can be one outstretched tease
of the paradise that is ahead. But, on that Saturday afternoon pellets of rain
pelted it with perfunctory precision. Dashing through the drops my wife and I
were making our way to Miami for a family reunion.
With the rain providing the dour drumbeat, the music muted
and my wife submerged in her stationery business I had plenty of time to think.
One such thought was to see whether I could remain off social media for a week.
I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube profiles.
I dabbled in mediums like Banjo and Snapchat and Shazam. But, the plan was to
go a week without paying attention to any of them.
Then George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder. And I was in
Miami.
The temptation to tweet was so strong my wife snatched my
phone. She assumed I was bound to say something reckless. She believed the
vitriol online would seep into me. In short she wanted to save me from myself.
Rather than tweeting my shock, I sent snarky text messages
to my friends before writing an essay.
The experiment was over in 72 hours because a close friend
needed me and social media was a big part of our communication. But, it led me
to wonder how many other people withstand the urge to share on social media.
It was a search that was completed in two weeks.
My wife has a handful of family members who choose to live
untethered to social media. Her older sister is one.
Though we are 13 months apart, when it comes to social media
we are worlds apart. She hasn’t posted anything on Facebook in months, while my
sabbatical earlier this month was the first time in years I had an extended
break from all social media.
Spending a weekend with my wife, her sisters and much of her
extended family on a vacation was an experience in how rewarding an unconnected
life may be. All of us were hundreds of miles away from our typical stressors.
The genuine time spent conversing, eating and relaxing made me wonder how
authentic our relationships are in this social media age.
Well before our twin trips south on the Florida interstate,
my wife mentioned that we have been on Facebook for nearly a decade. Initially,
I figured she was mistaken, but a quick look back revealed I have been a member
since April 2005.
More
than 80 percent of people my age use social media. Facebook is by far the
most popular medium for online adults. LinkedIn is a distant second while
Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are further behind.
But, is it worth it? After spending an extended weekend with
my wife’s sister I admired her ability to stay away from the online
tumbleweeds. It takes a certain level of maturity and sense of self to own a
smartphone, but acknowledge that online profiles are not for them.
Even if I wanted to live an untethered life, my career
requires I interact with the public.
But once I turned the data off on my cell phone over the
weekend, and the only way people could contact me was through a call or text
message, my connection to the world seemed quieter than an uninhabited island
in the Florida Keys. Both were things to marvel at from a distance, but not
anything that required additional attention.
At least I was not alone. An
overwhelming percentage of Facebook users have admitted to taking sabbaticals
from the most popular social medium. Their decisions to depart from online
life were varied.
As for my reason for retarding my social media consumption:
a hallelujah chorus is an excellent ego accelerant. But, too frequently that
chorus conjures a sound more monotonous than raindrops in paradise.
Laughs and liveliness,
-Wb
