The
whole world keeps reminding me that I live in a digital age and speak a
digitized language. It felt almost choking that I was so heavily dependent on
digital things; phones, cars, food delivery, money transaction, keeping up with
my friends etc.
 |
| Tired of social media, Jude Akhabue |
In the midst of that digital
hula balu, I decided to take a break from the social norm. I decided to stay
clear of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (which I was fast falling in love with).
Then I added Whatsapp and BBM as well. In short, I wanted to be off the digital
space radar.
Before going on that break, I
dropped messages online to inform friends of my week long break, you see I
really was a digital freak, I desperately needed the break.
It’s been a couple of months
now since I took the break. I am very much back to social media, to make it
worse, I now live and breathe social media (thanks to a new job) but I know I’m
better positioned thanks to what one week away from social media and mobile
apps taught me.
Here are the lessons I learned.
# It is very possible to live life off social
So we are told that we are born into a digital age, true!
But that I can’t live a normal life without the techie stuffs like phones, Facebook,
Twitter, whatsapp etc really bugs me. So I took a break, and guess what, I didn’t
miss one bit of gist. You want to ask how? The answer is simple; people! People
told me things, stuffs. I didn’t need to visit any blog, look up Facebook or
follow any tweet to know. People around me talked and I listened, so I got the
gist. The trick is, my friends do the blog visit and FB stuff and they talked
about it, I didn’t have to disturb my head and time – You can live just fine without techie stuffs!. What
counts are the people not the devices.
# Life is much fun when you kill that FoMO tendency
I know you are wandering, what the heck is FoMO? FoMO is
an acronym for ‘Fear of Missing Out’. It’s that feeling you get when you sense everyone
is talking or giggling about some great stuff that happened or will happen, and
you are like so unaware of the gist. You will then be like ‘wetin dey happen
sef’. You will hit Twitter, check your friend’s FB profile just to find out
what is going on. So staying off digital helped reduced my FoMO tendencies. It
reduced my propensity for gbeborun-ness (gossiping). Social media increases the likelihood of gossiping and social
eavesdropping!
# Social is not online, it actually happens offline
The word social really means to relate. Online you do the
relating without the help of non verbal cues (Yorubas say ‘oju loro wa’, that
is, the real speech lies in the facial expression not necessarily what is said).
Online stole the joy of deciphering people’s emotions, and yeah! emoticons didn’t
help. Real relationship is offline not
online
# Discipline!
Another thing the break taught
me was discipline, self discipline along with serious self will and motivation.
After the digital hiatus (lols! Hiatus is a geological word for ‘a pause’ – one
more grammar to add to your ‘gra-senal’) I discovered that discipline is a hard commodity to find, so I have learnt to attach
premium importance to it
# Staying off social leads to better self connection
With so many things trying to gain my attention (and I
mean so many things), imagine the dilemma I was in. The break came in a handy.
It helped me clear the back clutter of responsibilities and prepare for the
future eventualities. I got time to myself, to think, play and just be me, for
family – without digital interruption.
# If social doesn’t feel natural, it won’t fit in the future
During the hiatus, one question kept
probing my mind, the future of digital. I wondered how FB, Twitter, Instagram
and co would be in ten years time. I discovered not long after my return to
digital, that if tomorrow’s digital experience does not feel natural, if it
doesn’t provide that sense of nature (erm! Finding the right word to use), it
must make me feel like I’m interacting with a human and not a machine. Tomorrow’s digital must find a way to down
play algorithm and increase the human feel. If not, it would become another fad
of yesterday (tweet) just like fashion trends.
# I had to redefine friendship
This was one of the biggest
testimonies – Having to redefine friendship. You see on Twitter, I can follow
any stranger even ISIS if I want to, on LinkedIn, I can choose to connect to
anyone because of a nice resume. On Facebook, well it’s a bit different,
because I will only friend someone I know. But in real life, friendship is on
another level, one that digital media can’t and won’t understand. It goes beyond
the acceptance and follows; it requires a connection, something digital media
hasn’t been able to offer. Guys,
seriously, the best place to make friends isn’t online (tweet)
# Social media was actually killing my brain cells and health
Okay! Just
so you know, I am as healthy as an ox, but these devices, these tools and
channels, they are killers. Sitting for so long to tweet or chat, dangerous EM
waves, the careless stray onto the road because of chatting, those moment of
giggles (and people around looking with suspicion) and all those weren’t good
for my health. Another thing was that digital activities was slowly stealing
happy thoughts and cherished memories- all because I spent more time online.
Thank God for that break. (Don’t worry, nothing to tweet here)
# Lastly, social feeding breedsspiritual starving (tweet please!)
Yap! It
does. Whoever you submit to becomes your master, so says the scripture. When I
became too digital, I also became less spiritual, why? Because digital was
stealing the time and taking central place in my heart, I woke with digital and
slept with it. Now I know better, I am back to spiritual ways, which is also
good for my physical health.
So I have re-affirmed (not that
I didn’t know before), hence the re-affirmation THAT I am in control and must
be in control of what I do, who I am and how I choose to do what I do.
Well, I
hope you have gained one or two insights. I do recommend you go on this kind of
breaks (at least once a year) and I suggest a week duration - nothing longer
please.
Have you done something like
this before? Kindly Share what you learnt or gained.
If not, do you intend to? Drop
your thoughts in the comments section.
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