Leaving Facebook Behind (A Mindfulness Expiriment)
Thanks to an amazing conversation with my friend Jessamyn, I've finally come to my senses about the megavampiric nature of the entity known in this dimension as Facebook.
If you're here on Steemit, I don't think you need any preaching to about what's terribad about FB and why new forms of social media are important. You might remember what your own migration process was like. For me, Facebook used to steal a big chunk of my energy on a daily basis just through my repetitive "checking" of my notifications. I am curious to see if I develop the same type of easily distracted no-tick-ifications (is that a bad play on words?) by using steemit. I'm done with it, and plan to schedule my visits to that dark place on a once a week (or less) basis. And all future content I generate will originate here.
The mindfulness part of this post is simple. Every time that I think of checking facebook, feel that familiar instagram itch, or something like it, I will return to this post and note what I am feeling in the comments. If I feel the need to post something more substantial, I'll link to it in the comments with my mind-check update. I kind of expect to be bouncing back here all day, but maybe I will stay strong and actually stay on task (I'm at work right now).
Good luck! I'm sure the urge will get less frequent with time :D
Though the urge to check Steemit might replace this...
Yes, it already is, see how quickly I replied to this?
But at least here my energy is directed into the community and not converted into advertising money for a big evil corporation...
Exactly, that does make this better :-)
Good luck. consider trying meditation. Very satisfying!
Been getting more serious about my meditation practice every day :)
Wonderful!
Literally 2 minutes in, I find myself going to Facebook to find a picture of mine to add to this post. Which led to checking notifications (I had one from my wife). SO WOW. I couldn't even resist that long. Sanity check. I will certainly last a good while before the next dark urge...
Had the urge to check instagram while going to the bathroom. Classic! I resisted, however.
Pretty good gap between the last two check-ups on this post, meaning I've been pretty well focused on my work for that amount of time. But the mind needs short breaks, right? :)
Another "need to check" moment... but it's better to check this than to give my life-force up to facebook :)
Checking in--Had to facebook for a business related message around noon... and just now I got the itch and did actually check it. But while I have the page open I am making my hopefully not-too-dramatic "exit post" on there, where I am letting everyone know that I won't be active or reachable through facebook anymore, and will be checking it once a week or less. Strictly. After today. :)
Checked facebook again, got a cute but pointless cat video watched though.