More to life than Social Media? Time for a Social Media Blackout!

Putting things into Perspective...

I love social media and I passionately believe that it is (or at least can be) a tool for good in this age. But that is what it is- a tool. It is a great way of facilitating communication with real people- to build real relationships with other human beings.

I use social media all the time- multiple times every day to connect with my friends, promote my business, share thoughts and ideas and more.

Time to Pause!

But this Christmas holiday I'm stopping everything completely! I urge you to do the same too. It doesn't have to be Christmas, it could be any time in the year you choose. But having a social media detox is important from time to time. I did it for the first time last year and I found it hugely beneficial.

Why?

But why do this? Everyone will have different reasons, but for me I'll be doing a #SocialMediaBlackout for the following reasons:

1. Social media is important, but family is the most important- I want to spend time with them without an electronic device distracting me
2. I want to have some space and take stock of the past year- and plan for the next one!
3. Reset the batteries mentally, physically and spiritually
4. Be able to totally relax without worrying about continual updates

What?

For me I'm going the whole hog and stopping completely between 1pm on Christmas Eve until 1pm on December 27th. That means:

• No updates or logging on to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Vine etc
• No blog posts
• No emails (unless business critical ones)
• Stop all automated posts

How?

It does take a bit of planning for me. It's not just a case of not tweeting during my #socialmediablackout. I've had to...

• Go through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and revoke (or plan to revoke) auto-posting apps such as Triberr, Tweet Old Post and Buffer
• Log out of social networking apps on my phone.
• So that people don't think I am ignoring them during the #socialmediablackout write a blog post (this one) and tweet when I'm switching off.

Sounds a bit Silly to me...

If you think I've lost it or I've gone a bit hardcore here- I understand. When I make my mind up about things I like to do things properly. But that's just me! You might just want to cut down your time using social media so that you can spend time with your family. Someone I was chatting to on Twitter said they wanted to keep in touch with friends over Christmas but wanted to stop everything else.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I know not all of my readers celebrate Christmas, but I do hope and pray you'll have a relaxing holiday and time with your family. I'll be back in 2014 and I look forward to chatting with you then!