The Social Media Obsession

Ah, the internet generation. I am proud to be part of this fast-moving society, where at the simple touch of a button we're sharing our huge news and announcements, or something as monotonous as what we ate for breakfast that morning. But can it be damaging, especially as a blogger, feeling the need to constantly update your online presence?

THE CONSTANT NEWS SOURCE

Once, a teacher remarked 'wow, this girl clearly watches the news' when I answered a question related to current affairs, and I replied 'nope, I just spend way too much time on Twitter'. That's the truth. With the internet at our fingertips, we're always connected to the world and what's going on in it. I'm one to like to be constantly learning, and this is my favourite thing about social media - I'm constantly learning about the world, and feel in-touch with it.

BUT IS IT ALL A LIE?

I've been there - in full-on tears, mid-fall-out with my best friend over Snapchat, quickly hopping over to Instagram to respond, seemingly-happy, to a compliment on my latest Instagram post. Your social media presence is sculpted by your ideal version of you, and yes, it's fake - no one can deny that. Is that so bad? No one should post the worst version of themselves online, certainly, no one should be expected to. But it can be draining keeping up some sort of pretence when all you want to do is have a bit of a rant.

IT IS NON-STOP

My friends may have hobbies such as dancing, or playing an instrument, which takes up a large portion of their time, but they can step away from it all, unlike blogging. Because we're constantly on our phones, blogging isn't like other hobbies, for me, it's 24/7. I'm constantly thinking about photos for Instagram, what to tweet and whether it will be relevant to people who I follow, and sometimes it begins to feel like there's no escape.

THE STATISTICS MACHINE

Over the past year or so I've noticed I have become sucked into the blogging-SEO statistics machine - paying attention to follower numbers, sticking to a schedule and keeping up with a cohesive Instagram theme. Or at least, attempting to do all these things. I'm not going to lie - I've come to realise lately it has what has taken all the fun out of blogging. I feel like I'm posting for the social media numbers rather than myself. If I don't post a blog post for a week - will I lose all my followers? Most likely not, but my brain tells myself I will, and therefore must get a post up. See what I meant about blogging being a 24/7 affair?

TRYING TO STEP AWAY

So my little resolution, going into my last year of college soon, is to allow myself to step away from it. To give myself room to breathe out of the blogosphere every now and again when I need it, to remind myself why I love being part of it so much.

READ MORE BOOKS

My favourite way of switching off from social media is getting tucked into a good book. I'll probably write about this further in a future post, but over the past few years, I have decreased my book-reading habits rather dramatically. Back in the day, I used to read and read - the organisation part of me resents this a little as I have ended up with shelves and cupboards full of them.
Nowadays, I actually read even more, but on social media and screens, so I plan to read more proper books. And branch out of my reading habits. The past few years I would occasionally read a young adult romance book, but now I'm beginning to read some historical books which I am finding super interesting. I've even set up a Goodreads account if you want to follow me on this - yep, creating another social media account to try and get away from social media. I guess it doesn't add up, but it's a start.

TURN OF THE WIFI

I'm not going to say I'm going to turn my phone off for a day, just because I know I would miss listening to music too much. But since I usually start listening to an album and end up on a half an hour deep Instagram scroll, I'd like to switch it off for a while and get lost in the music I love so much.

LET GO OF THE SCHEDULE

This is something that will have to happen the further I go down my A-Level year anyway, so I may as well start getting myself comfortable with not being restrained to a blogging schedule. I attempt to post twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday being the ideal days), and if I don't, as I haven't several times earlier this year, I feel awful about it.

It's what has made me fall out of blogging, as I push myself to get these posts up twice a week, and I'm possibly not really writing about what I actually want to, just in order to get up a post for the schedule, making blogging feel like a bit of a chore. Maybe one week I want to post three posts, and the next just one? At least until the exams are over when I will reassess the situation, I intend on posting when I want - and that goes for all forms of social media; the blog, Twitter and Instagram.

How do you switch of from social media? Do you feel like blogging can feel overwhelming at times as you're always connected? I would love to hear your tips for dealing with it all!

EG x