Why I’m turning off social media once a week

I love social media. I love how it connects people. I love how I know what my friends in other countries are up to. I love the interesting people I’ve met via instagram and I love how much I’ve learnt from life coaches and wellbeing experts just through some tiny squares.

It’s hard to be in the moment, when having a smartphone means you can fill every moment

What I don’t love is how it takes me away from my son and how it drains my time when I could be doing else I enjoy instead (such as reading a book or watching a film). I feel my concentration span has reduced since the advent of smartphones and I miss the feeling of being bored. It’s hard to be in the moment, when having a smartphone means you can fill every moment.

So I’ve decided to make a commitment to keeping Sundays social media free. Other than a quick update to instagram to keep my resolution to post for 365 days, I will be offline.

I will be using that time to fully engage with my son and do activities that he really enjoys. I’ve started to worry that he knows I’m sometimes distracted and I don’t want him to feel second best to a phone. There are times during our Fridays off together when I have to take care of something for work and I don’t want that to leak through to weekends.

I also want to start the week ahead feeling refreshed having had the chance to give my brain some space. I tend to get the best ideas when i’m able to reflect a bit more rather than feeling slightly overwhelmed. I find I get much more easily inspired when I do something outside of my usual routine.

Social media has enhanced my life in so many ways. It just doesn’t need to become my life.