What did you expect?

Without social media for a month, I expected some boredom. “Huh. What do I do with myself?”
There’s maybe a smidge-bit of that, but not really.

I thought there might be Facebook-withdrawals.
Like I’d miss it or something. An addict craving another high. Like Facebook would be all…

and I’d be like…

There’s NONE of that, which frankly surprises me.

This thing that has been a pretty big part of my life for a pretty long time and has taken up a pretty sizeable amount of my spare time…
It’s “gone” AND I DON’T EVEN MISS IT?

Yup.
Weird, huh.

Being in the loop is great and all, but I’ve accepted that life is going to continue rolling on for all those wonderful people that I love so much, and I’m pretty much okay with being out of the loop for a month. They’ll live. I’ll live. It’s not a super huge big deal.

It’s just a month.

If you REALLY want to tell me what’s going on, you know how to reach me. If you can’t go a month without letting me rejoice/cry/party with you, reach out! I’m still here, and I absolutely love being connected. It’ll make my day, so do it.

My intent with this experiment isn’t to drop off the face of the earth. It’s to figure out what life looks like without social media… because…

I know Facebook, for me, is getting in the way of… something.  

Jumping into it, I knew that it might be a little bit ugly, figuring out what that “something” is… but…

Ripping the cover off of this mystery is a little bit different than I expected.

I’m seeing now more clearly what I used social media for:

TAPPING OUT.

When do you “tap out,” friends?
When you don’t like what’s going on around you or (more likely) inside you.

Why do you “tap out?”
Because your subconscious says, “Ooh, yeah, how about we NOT deal with that!”

So…

What happens when you intentionally throw out your favorite tapping-out time-sucker?

What happens when you let Life know you aren’t going to replace one time-sucker with some other time-sucker?

What happens when you consciously, vocally, with great determination and gusto put That Thing on the alter and tell the universe,

“You can have it! I’m not going to use it!
Go ahead and do what you want with it,
I’m not ignoring life any more!”

Well. I don’t know what would happen for you, but I shall tell you how the last few days have gone for me.
Hint: There was no fanfare or standing ovation. There were no angelic choirs, shooting stars, or even Girlscout cookies. 

I went to sleep June 30 thinking happy thoughts.

“This is going to be great! I’m so glad I’m doing this! This is going to be the best month ever.”

I woke up July 1, “the sun is shining, the tank is clean…”

…and WHAM:

disturbing flashback.
Not super intense, thankfully, but just ERGH.
It’s not fun.

I was like, really? I’m sure this for the greater good and all, but geeeeeeeze, man! Right out the gate? Before I’m even out of bed? Are you serious?

THANKS, UNIVERSE.

So THAT’S what happened when I (temporarily) renounced Facebook. It rocked my boat for days.

Bleh.

More on what that actually looks like later… because you’re soooooooo interested, I’m sure.
I know I am. I can’t WAIT to document this bleh-ness. I’m TOTALLY not like, “Okay, when can we move on to funny stories and pictures of cute kids?”
Mm-hm.