Social Media Addiction. Is that a thing?

 

It’s all got a bit much recently.

I’ve been ‘having a moment’. Pretty standard. There’s always a moment going on with me. Mercury Retrograde hasn’t helped either.

Whatever the reason, planetary or otherwise, I’ve felt majorly strung-out and I’ve got an inkling social media is to blame.

Here’s a bunch of musings on the matter.

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• Social media is amazing.

• It has given me access to an INCREDIBLE network of people.

• I never expected to make new friends in my 30’s, thanks to Instagram and of course Mothers Meeting.  I’ve gain a whole new Girl Gang. From strangers to people I genuinely LOVE in just over a year.  Increds.

• Social Media has given me belly laughs. Celeste Barber and Fat Jewish = constant lols .

• Social Media has inspired me. Those ‘filtered lives’ are the cheapo’s version of buying a glossy magazine or coffee table books.

•  Pinterest literally styled my entire house during a massive renovation project 2 years ago.

• It  pushed our marriage to the limit though:  my husband couldn’t get so excited about the 2000 pins of scandi-styling-with-industrial-cues-in-various- shades-of-soft-grey. Apparently my beloved boards didn’t excite him quite as much as me. Can’t understand why?

• Facebook Timehop is a goodie. Who doesn’t enjoy revisiting a hilarious ‘noughties fashion disaster’?

• So yeah I love Social Media. 

• But there’s a bad side to all this.

• It’s not what you might assume. Nothing to do with privacy.  Yes I have made a lot of my life public via Mother of All Lists and @peckham_mamma. Contrary to how it may appear, those moments are only ever a fraction of the reality. The tip of the iceburg/juggling act that’s really going on.

• Life is pretty hectic as a working-mum-blogger-wife-friend-sister-daughter-dog-owner. That’s BEFORE you add all the online stuff: the pictures and the links and the notifications and the private messages and 140 characters and the comments popping up on my screen 24/7.

• No surprise then that life + social media (+ small children) =  burn-out.

• Looking back at previous generations we wonder how they failed to realise the damage smoking/drugs were doing to them. What if social media is our generations vice?   

• Probably a tad OTT, but I believe we (by we I mainly mean me) underestimate the harm it’s doing.

• The stress it causes. Nothing major; nothing you can even put your finger on. It’s the drip drip drip effect.

• The unspoken pressure of comparing yourself to thousands pictures on Instagram every day is mind frazzling stuff . 

• It’s not about a sense of competition.

•  The quantity of knowledge is what does me in: what she’s wearing, what they are doing, who’s hanging out with who….

•  Whatsapp is my worst. I literally can’t keep up with it. Once upon a time you came home from a 2 week holiday to a few messages on the answer machine. Now 5 minutes away from the phone equals a barrage of notifications.

• Overheard conversations between friends, banter that is already out of date before you’ve even read it, mundane arrangements to a meet-up that you couldn’t make.

• In real life you might walk away or better still be totally oblivious. Instead we are trapped. Feeling too polite and British to ‘leave the conversation’, choosing to eternally to ‘opt-in’.

• Perhaps these musings are a reflection of my personality. I’m an all or nothing sort. When I smoked I was a ‘fag before breakfast’ kinda girl.  Same goes with this.

• What’s the solution? Good question.

• Quitting isn’t realistic. ‘Social media’ isn’t a phase; it’s how people communicate these days.

•  Opting out = missing out. On support, advice, friendship, knowledge, giggles, cathartic tears, inspiration. All the good stuff.

• Instead I’m self regulating (said like a true addict).

• Starting with turning off every notification . Which is amazing. Can’t recommend it enough.

• Physically putting my phone away. Life has come the full circle: phones on silent, messengers with less message alerts, mobile devices relegated to the hall-way; like the old ‘land lines’ they’ve replaced. Bonkers but necessary.

• Truth is it’s a bit of the old stuff I want back.

• Remember the days when you would sit in a waiting room? Queue at the Post Office? Lie in bed first thing in the morning? And do nothing.  

• Those ‘in-between’ bits seemed so boring back then.

• Not now. Those forgotten windows of blissful contemplation and reflection seem infinitely appealing.  

• Rest and re-cooperation = the most precious commodities imaginable.  More desirable and swoon worthy than any Valencia filtered square. 

• Offline. Off grid. Off radar. Downtime. Call it what you will.

• What I want is a bit of a rest here and there.

• And no, I don’t want the ‘app for that’.