I just recently took a 6-day trip to visit some family in Milwaukee, WI. After slaving away most of my summer days in a classroom and office, I figured a vacation to a place where I could score free boarding (casa del el aunto’s = my aunt’s house) would be a good breather from both my stressful summer and the hot weather in St. Louis.
So earlier this summer my main man (see: boyfriend) told me I spent too much time glued to my phone and more specifically to Twitter. As much as I hate to admit when I am wrong, he was right – at times I am nothing more than a mere extension of the technology I hold in my hand. So throughout the summer I’ve tried to minimize the time I spent on my phone around my loved ones, because I realized that by maintaining my online relationships I was seemingly damaging the relationships the people I was standing in a room with. So I told myself to minimize the tweeting and the texting while on vacation. (For whatever reason I can’t resist the opportunity for a foursquare check-in though.)
Social media and even texting have given us a wonderful gift that at times can act as a burden. Since coming into college the idea of “courting” a woman has been lost, flirting lost to wayside of Facebook pokes and emotionless text messages. According to the times I’m supposed to be wooed by smiling emoticons and text message lingo.
Scenic Lake Michigan
Limiting my social media usage for 6 days wasn’t too hard, but I was out of my usual environment where there is responsibilities and well… lots of boredom. But earlier this summer my boyfriend proposed we both forego social media for a week. I originally seemed petrified by the idea, “A WHOLE WEEK?!” Why who would get to hear funny quips about my day (Twitter usually gets the brunt of these), what would I do to pass the time? Unfortunately, or fortunately the idea warmed up on me and as the last days of my internship and my online summer class (Women in Literature) comes nearer, so does the countdown to a week without social media.
The rules are as such:
Okay, we haven’t set any rules in stone. But both of us (assuming he still participates) are supposed to change each other’s passwords and when the week is up change them back! Easy enough, right?
The problem here is that I’m left with a week to figure out what to do with the time previously occupied by social media and playing mid-day Tetris on my laptop. Or wondering if I have to give people my phone number to contact me out of Facebook or Twitter? Or what about e-mails, can I respond to those? I need my Groupon fix, “OH THE DEALS I JUST CAN’T RESIST THEM!”
So my online class ends August 9th and soon after I’m forfeiting a week up of social media and the like. As a born-geek, it’ll be weird not clogging up my time glued to a computer and it’ll be interesting to see what I decide to occupy my time with instead. (Mad Men on Netflix? Good possibility.) I can certainly guarantee it won’t start a “I Hate Technology” crusade because I rely on microwaves, cars, A/C and the what-not too much, but maybe it’ll make all those things I get so nostalgic over—like riding a bike, reading a paperback book and relaxing outside—more of a common thing, if not for just a week.
I’ll let you know how it goes, and hopefully it’ll give me a little more motivation to clean up my living quarters.
You could others know that you are not checking in online for the week you’re gone. Set your Facebook status, and auto-reply email. Good luck!
Love this idea! I definitely need to do this. I’ll miss you while you’re MIA, but this is an awesome thing! Good luck!
Thanks Maddie, I’m giving myself a few weeks to hype myself up (and use social media excessively beforehand). I’m already seeing nearly a whole week of just catching up on Mad Men.
Awesome idea! I semi did this while at Bonnaroo. It was a lot easier because so much was going on, but I was still wondering what was happening in the twitter stream. I’d be happy to be your entertainment one evening during this – it’ll give me a reason to tuck my phone away for a night!