Listen to the Minions

I love this cartoon. And it perfectly sums up why I'm trying a growing social media fast during the quest. Did you know:

1. Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
2. More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices

Yep, I'm in that number somewhere. 

I love social media. I'm a communicator by trade, so I'm inherently designed to see the value. But for me, I really jumped in the fray when I moved from my home in Memphis to Akron, OH about 18 months ago. It was a lifeline for me to my friends and family. Suddenly, I was very interested in the fact that someone was having pot roast for dinner, or the fact that they hated Mondays. Crazy. 

Well, 18 months later, I am tweeting, hash tagging, videoing,  pinning, sharing, and liking as a way of life. No biggie right?  Then I missed something big. 

About a week ago, thanks to two cancelled flights, I went to see the Super Bowl kickoff party in Times Square. I was so excited about filming the Jersey Boys, the Rockettes and the Boys Choir of Harlem all performing together (I mean it had to go on Facebook right?)  I was staring through my phone and framed the stage perfectly. Score. 

When I was riding to the airport that night it occurred to me-- the point of the event was to unveil the massive Super Bowl numbers. I realized I never saw them. I googled them (of course) and realized that while I was posting and videoing away, the numbers rose behind the stage and they were gold and enormous. I totally missed it. And I was mere feet away. I looked at my pictures and video and sure enough, you can barely see the bottom of them. They were completely cut off. 

That's when it hit me, I need to spend some time away from the apps. And this will be hard. Very hard. I turn off my alarm and grab the iPhone to scroll Facebook and Twitter first thing every morning. Habit!  

Well I realized that tomorrow, no one has a birthday on Facebook. So I can cut the cord then. I'm committing to one day off of social media. The tweeting and buzzing will stop for the day. I'm increasing a day per month until I can go five days a month offline. 

Now, don't think I've gone crazy. I will still care about your pot roast on Thursday.