Put Down and Step Away from the Phone

Last week I challenged you all to delete at least one social media account and replace it with an activity unrelated to the online world, like a sport, hobby, club or group. In order to make your decision easier, I asked you to weigh out the positives and negatives. Now for those of you who have followed through with this task, it’s time to reflect on your decision. With just a week in since you’ve deleted at least one account how do you feel? The feelings that I hope you are feeling are of those of power and accomplishment. Power because you have ridded something in your life that could have been bringing you down and accomplishment for having the strength to do so and stick with it.

This week’s post focuses on creating barriers to help you stay on track and manage your online and social media habits. Amber Whiteside, Social Media Director of Tehama Group Communications posted a few tips to her blog about “how to put your phone down when you`re a social media addict?” Her tips include shutting off your phone when you go to sleep at night and spending time in the moment. I feel these are two very important tips because whether or not you get a good night sleep could dictate the way you feel the next day and how you interact with others. Moreover, there should be nothing that important on social media that can’t wait until the morning. At the end of the day we spend so much time on social media that we start missing out on what’s happening to us in real life and we would all benefit from putting the phone down every once in a while.

My challenge for this week is to not only follow these tips but to take them one step further, especially when it comes to “spending time in the moment”. You can take this tip to the next level by completely removing all social media from your phone. Not only will this will help deter you from checking your phone like a maniac and give you the ability to actually live in the moment but it will also help prevent you from coming off as rude and uninterested.

On a side note, Amber Whiteside also posted a link to an infographic by MediaBistro on some interesting facts and statistics about social media addiction. Some interesting facts include,

•  It may be harder to refrain from Tweeting than it is to refrain from smoking or consuming alcohol because of the associated cost of using each.

 •  4 out of 5 students experienced negative side effects when disconnecting from technology for a day.

 •  Most students couldn't make it without social media for 24 hours.


What do you think about these facts? Are they surprising or not? Why?

 Until next week,

 Tiffany Hopkinson