I’m gonna get myself disconnected…
So here’s the deal. I’m giving up social media for two weeks. For me that means 14 days without Twitter, Facebook or blog activity.
Why? Because.
Oh please elaborate… I hear you cry.
It started when I read about the Mashable Social Media Disconnect Challenge in which five guinea pigs will be taking the same challenge. I asked myself could I do it? Only one way to find out…
So from 00:00 on Sunday 18th March until 00:00 on Sunday 1st April I will be going on a social media starvation diet.
Social networks have become part of my everyday life in the past four years. There’s no escaping that fact. Reading and posting updates as well as reading and writing blog posts is as much a part of my daily life as food and drink. However, unlike food and drink, I inhabit the social networks by choice rather than necessity, or at least I think I do. Two weeks without online social sustenance will tell.
During the blackout I’ll be following the rules as laid down by Mashable:
*In our challenge, disconnecting from social media limits you to: emailing, SMS texting and content consumption via a news site or an embed video. This means you are not allowed to create or share any type of content. Actions like writing blog posts, uploading videos, commenting, Liking a comment, posting status updates, sharing a post, checking in, playing social games, chatting online, video chatting, or anything related to those actions are not allowed.
I’m not doing it because I feel I need a break. The social media themselves, or the people who inhabit it, haven’t forced my hand. I’m certainly not doing it as a stunt. It’s just to see how it goes. I’ll be conducting my normal daily life so it won’t be like cutting the cord by going on holiday. At the end of it all I’ll be back to tell you how it went.
If anyone reading this considers themselves a social media addict and/or blog slave and wants to try the same challenge, following the rules above, say so in the comments below. Bear in mind this isn’t meant to be group therapy. I won’t be on hand to provide comfort during periods of cold turkey. It would however be interesting to share our experiences when the two weeks are up.
Wish me luck. See you on the other side.
HUN
PS Because of this hiatus, the next Crowdsourced Sunday will be on Sunday 8th April.
Good Luck with your disconnection! I’m not sure I could do it! See you on the other side!
I certainly could fill my time without twitter or facebook and dont read each and every tweet. Instead I drop in and out of twitter like a guest and if something interesting catches my eye, all well and good. To not check emails for 2 weeks may prove costly. I would hate to miss some communication, invite or similar by ignoring them. Also I text family and friends instead of incurring the cost of phoning. I cant see the point of this challenge at all but that is just my point of view. I hope you get something worthwhile out of it.
Hi there.
Emailing and texting are allowed: “In our challenge, disconnecting from social media limits you to: emailing, SMS texting and content consumption via a news site or an embed video”.
It is Twitter, Facebook, blogging etc… that is not.
Liska x
Interesting – I could miss you for a month then as we are away (with a sumo wrestler and his 3 rottweillers staying at my place) for the first two weeks in April. I’ve not decided how I’m going to handle the blog during this time. Iti’s the first time we’ve been away for more than a few days since I started blogging and I feel like a pet owner who has to make arrangements for the animals. Ridiculous – but I’m concerned about my hard earned blog status if I neglect it for a fortnight. Good luck with your challenge.
Bet you a tenner you can’t do it LOL. Fascinating and intriguing challenge. I’ve only been a social media participant for 18 months, but it’s become crack cocaine. I actually shudder thinking about what you’re about to do. How dependent is that? You’ll be missed, but I’m looking forward to you reporting back. I’d like to give it a go myself, so you won’t mind if I treat you as my canary going down the mine!! I’m not brave enough to do it without an advance party. One question: does your monastic solitude include not being able to write dozens of blog posts to press Publish on the moment you emerge like a twitching phoenix from the ashes of your absenteeism?
great question. I also want to know
Last weekend I spent two days away from my laptop. Although I am a fairly new convert to social networking it has consumed me enough to make me fear a spell without it. And it was revelatory. I lived entirely in reality instead of virtual reality, undistracted by my inboxes and blog stats. And, while the thrill of it wears off, Twitter has been a little less compelling. I shall be very interested to hear how you fare, but the bummer of it is (reluctant as I am to plump your ego) I’ll miss you. PS Could you mail me an entry to use for the next 100 Word challenge since your muse will otherwise be wasted!
Well, good luck mate! I won’t be joining you, I’m afraid. Having given up alcohol for Lent I don’t think I could cope with two lots of cold turkey. Shall I send you a digest of what you’ve missed?
Good luck! I’d say I would join you, but I know that I would fail. I will be intrigued to hear your results.
Unplugging yourself from the Matrix….
I think it will be akin to giving up smoking, you will have stacks of time on your hands. Make a list now of all those diy jobs that need doing and get stuck in.
Good for you!
We’ll still be here when you get back.
The Borg….
I would be interested to hear how it goes. Social networking adds to my life rather than detracts from it so I have no intention of giving it up. See you on the other side!
Fuck it – I’m gonna join you for this! We’ll have to swap mobile phone numbers before hand so we can text each other instead – in all honesty I think texting is the way forward anyway.
Erm no Musodad – no texting for chatting, that’s part of it. Sorry.
Okay, okay, I won’t text him. *whispers* Garry, keep an eye out for that carrier pigeon. *winks*
You won’t be catching me trying it any time soon but I can’t wait to read your update when you return. Great idea!!
Wow, good luck, I’d love to give it a go but since I, just last week, volunteered to look after our corporate Twitter account I fear I may struggle to forgo my personal accounts, especially as there’s some overlap between the two.
Good luck dude. I had nearly a month without social media when we moved and had no broadband. The first week was actually quite hard, I constantly had that nagging feeling of forgetting to do something. The second week was nice, I was quite smug about not going online. Third/forth weeks I pretty much forgot about it. I got a lot more done in general, saw more of the world and to be honest think I preferred life without it.
But then we got the broadband back……
I will miss ur 100wcgu, but I know that you will be back, you wont be able to resist.
Resistance is futile.
Mwah hah hah hah hah …
Willpower. Which I reckon you have in abundance…. it’s easy when you know how
Will miss seeing your humour pop up in my timeline though, or reading your words of wisdom on the blog, but there’ll be lots of time for more of everything.
I find social media a bit like an itch I have to scratch… sometimes it’s worse than ever and other times I don’t notice it at all…
Have fun
Blimey! Total disconnect from the blogging world. That is brave. I couldn’t leave Twitter or Facebook when I took a break from writing my blog for a few weeks recently. The desire to know what was going on and maintain friendships recently made was too great… even if not as regularly as before. Enjoy living in the real world for a few weeks – I’m sure we’ll all still be here when you’re back and if not, you didn’t need us anyway! Looking forward to your return
Good luck.
Oooh dying to know how this works out. You are way braver than me. I might actually have some fun with my family if I stopped blogging and then I’d never come back!
as of this writing, you’ve been offline for two whole days and i’m wondering how you’re faring.
i do hope it’s going well and i know i’m among the many who are looking forward to reading your reflections about these two weeks.
peace to you, my friend.