The best thing I can do for my writing practice right now is to let go of social media. Good-bye. I do know that if I let go of social media, I will fill that space with deeper reading & thinking. Over the last several days, instead of reaching for my phone I have been picking up a book (a “real” book) or a magazine. This has so far proved to be a positive change. It is intentional, relevant, and meaningful.

Social media, especially Facebook is, for the most part, a vacuous rabbit hole. Besides taking up too much time, it also occupies far too much mental space. This old brain needs all it can get. 

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM

I use Facebook primarily to keep up with friends and family who live in other states. It’s nice to know what’s going on with the people I care about. However, I don’t need to check on them throughout each day! That is when it becomes mindless procrastination.

Twitter is where I follow authors and writers and librarians. Twitter is a font of inspiration, news on topics I care about, and various tidbits of gossip from the literary world.

I enjoy Instagram because I like to play around with photography. Photography is a creative outlet that I don’t have to be good at, that is to say it’s a hobby. Instagram isn’t really necessary for that.

MINDLESS WANDERINGS

When I post something on Instagram or Twitter, I find myself scrolling through for ridiculous amounts of time. It’s addictive. I find it hard to scroll through for, say five minutes, because five turns into twenty. Then I feel compelled to visit other platforms and then circle back around. Next thing I know an hour has gone by. An hour? Really? Am I really that out of control? See what I mean! It’s an awful waste of time. 

BLOG

I am also considering taking a hiatus from my blog. The thing about blogging is it provides a platform for me to write mini-essays on various topics and writing is how I think things through. While I have my journal for that, I tend to put more thought into a blog post because I know it is going public. However, whenever I post on my website, I tend to circle through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check the traffic to my site. I will likely write my little essays without posting, save them to post in the future instead. 

Also, this website needs work. I am not willing to devote effort to it at this time. I receive little traffic to my site and I know that is at least in part because of the way I have it set up. My priority right now should be my two works-in-progress, not tech issues.

So this little turtle is going into her shell to be alone and get some work done!