Although I'm not really a practicing Mormon at this point of my life, I was raised as such and have seen all my relatives doing the whole 7 day social media fast. I got curious as to what was said about it and why the push, so I went out and read up on it. It makes sense. It made me evaluate my use of social media... but here's the thing. In April I moved to a new job. A job where my phone is locked in a cubby outside of my actual work area... it sits all day in a cubby in the atrium of my building. EEEEKKKK, right?
What I learned from that move was that, yes, the first day or two I missed the ease of grabbing my phone and zipping a text to a kid. What I also learned is that there are MANY more ways to work this. I learned to forward my phone to my office number so that if calls came to my cell during the day I wouldn't miss them. I would just get them in my office where I could address whatever it was - be it a medical reminder or a pest control re-scheduling. Problem 1 solved.
Problem 2 was contact with kids... although my kids are older and sort of self-sufficient, I did find that I missed some of the contact I would have with them on occasions during the day. At first I would log into Facebook at work and NOT surf it, but open the Instant Message option so I could Text to Angela as needed during the day. This only lasted about the first month, then I discovered that she wasn't in need of constant contact and was just fine out there on her own... yay for adulting!! AND if she really needed me she would call my phone and wala, it would transfer to my work phone and as long as I wasn't in a meeting, I was getting her calls as they came in - case in point, she called yesterday, so I chatted with her for a bit and we solved the problems of the day and went on.
The OTHER way I can cheat on that is that Liz works on base and I can IM her any time I want... not that she responds as much as she has a much more stressful job than I do working in finance... and she's a decidcated little worker! BUT if we need to chat, we have that option.
So, did I go on a total fast? Nope, but I did learn that I can function just fine with just checking things at night and doing a quick run down on the world. Do I find I compare myself to others on social media? I don't really think so. I use it as a tool... when I had questions about health things and issues with cancer, stomas, reversals, and the like I would reach out to my communities on facebook (for those of you who every have to face colon/rectal cancer "ColonTown" is the BEST resource for ANY question you may have - not kidding ANY question). I don't know that I would compare myself to those in there and feel like I wasn't where I needed to be, but rather I would take comfort from knowing that I wasn't alone in feeling what I was feeling or experiencing what I was experiencing, and in a weird way I was happy to give others hope when I was having an easier time with one area or the other... to let others know that although, yeah, this experience sucks, not all outcomes are horrible, and there is hope that things can work out OK. I guess I have turned into (always been?) a glass half full gal. I have seen silver linings in most of the things that have happened to date in my life.
Anyway... are there times I look at other things out there and think ... "oh, how I wish I could do/experience/have that?" Sure. Is it short lived? Yeah... with exception of Gails tallent with scrapbooking and cards - ha! Love you Gail!!
So, that's my 2 cents on the whole thoughts of life lately...
