Happy Ash Wednesday! For Lent, I have decided to give up social media—with the exception of LinkedIn, which I use daily for work.
After a quick audit of where all my time was going, I realized that I spend far too many hours scrolling. While the premise of social media is not inherently bad, we are wired to yearn more and more for it daily. I highly recommend giving Dopamine Nation by Dr Anna Lembke a read.
I’m on social media to keep up with friends, consume news (mostly sports), share my fitness progress, and laugh at memes. Unfortunately, outside of being an addictive time suck, social media is inflamed with misinformation, fruitless arguing, bullying, and people pretending their lives are way better than they actually are.
There are, after all, other ways to keep up with your friends like calls, texts, and actually leaving your house to see one another. I can watch games at night and listen to sports talk radio while working in order to follow my favorite teams. I receive my news via the Morning Brew. And let’s face it, nobody cares how much weight I lift besides me and the people who are in the gym with me (questionable). If I get antsy and need to take a break from work to stare at my phone, I’ll make the time productive by using learning apps such as DuoLingo or SoloLearn.
See you on the other side of Easter—maybe.
