On the digital disconnect (or how to take a real holiday from online life)
Last year, I attempted (quite unsuccessfully I might add) to completely disconnect from the world. No email, no Twitter, no Facebook. While I know that my good friend Gillian Shaw, the digital editor of the Vancouver Sun did, indeed, manage to break the umbilical cord with the social networking platforms, I have had a rough time. So rough that even if I said I wouldn’t check Twitter, I’ve had to deal with a couple of things (mostly, contests and stuff I had already prescheduled and needed to get done or edits to posts I had written), so in the end I have (though very, very infrequently) checked briefly my email, peeked a couple of times on my Twitter stream and gave a quick visit to Facebook.
For the most part, disconnecting is going about 80% well, I would say. I’ve gotten SO MUCH WORK done. I’ve been able to say “no, you don’t need to check Twitter/Facebook/email for the next 6 hours” and in fact, do it. But I am still blogging. Mostly, because I want to make sure all my posts are scheduled for the 10 days that I plan to completely, totally disconnect.
I think the fact that it’s taken me a solid 3 days to wean myself out from checking Twitter (which, admittedly, I checked four times over the course of the past 3 days) is a testament to how strongly embedded Twitter is in my personal life. But the thing is, I’ve already done this. I’ve disconnected for a full 24, 48 and 72 hours. All I need to do is refocus. Don’t let the curiosity get the best of me.
And learn to make people wait until I respond. Because I’m always the hummingbird. Always the fast. Always the one who has a response RIGHT THERE AND THEN. Truth is, nobody needs me to respond immediately. And even *I* can (and am supposed to) take holidays. But it’s sooooo hard to disconnect. All of the above said, since I announced my digital holidays on Wednesday, my community on Twitter and on my blog have been incredibly respectful of my time and know that I am actually not checking my social streams. In fact, every tweet you’ve seen on my stream except for one on Christmas Day were fully pre-scheduled. And I cross-posted a couple of photos iPhone -> Flickr -> Twitter.
But I’ve managed to stop myself from checking! And it’s incredibly re-invigorating. I am indeed blogging, but for the most part, the content you’re reading is stuff I had pre-written and pre-scheduled. There IS value for taking a digital holiday. And I am enjoying it to the fullest.
Related posts:
- #Disconnected3 : Challenging yourself to disconnect for a full 3 hours a day
- Does retweeting build community online? Twitter as a real social media platform?
- Is measuring real influence in social media possible?
- Guest post: Making the Most of Twitter – in Real Life, by Cathy Browne
- The offline life of an online geek
[...] well known in the Vancouver social media scene. Even so, he is trying to learn how to embark on the digital disconnect for the holidays. It’s hard to pull yourself away from Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, but [...]