I encountered the concept of social media detox and feature stories about people who are actually successful, but no active accounts.  Thus I try it, mildly, on my personal account on Facebook. Since June 12; I didn’t post status message, I read and comment on interesting tagged posts only, and I participate private messages with my BFFs only. I also “unfollow <name> to stop seeing posts, but stay friends. “Here are the things I realize and rewards ( next post) I get from avoiding hanging out on my personal account:

 a little background first: I am chatty when I discuss about my sentiments, passions and when I am with someone who is interesting (yeah not only with my friends and sweetheart –charrot). Thus if I’m wordy in my status messages or post often and consecutively, that’s me being talkative virtually.

FYI, my theme for this year (I do this since 2011) is “to go all out” and that includes to be active online. However something change along the way. I realize that being all out (for the sake of it) may hinder me to enjoy and focus on things I value most. When I was planning my 2016 theme, what I am thinking were to improve myself, to maximize my potentials, and do the unfinished businesses. I didn’t achieve those by mere being all out. I  also came to a point that I am being someone who I think the sum of others’ views about me. Not the person I  genuinely think and feel who’s me. If you know what I mean.

1. Not everyone bothers about you and your opinion 

 Out of 300 plus friends on my personal account, I only receive three how-are- you messages. It turned out pa that they actually want to inquire something so they checked my wall first. Hehehe!  So…

@iBlog 2014

• Perhaps, I am not as important as I think – The “likes” and comments I received before my mild social media detox experiment were for my updates, not necessarily because of me.
• Social media users are self-absorbed – They like sharing quotes, selfies, sentiments (a.k.a rants or bashing), and interests. Thus, it’s also natural they don’t mind or notice that you’re sort of inactive on Facebook.

2. It’s good that I have separate Facebook accounts. For quite some time, I’m contemplating whether it’s good to have separate accounts.  You know you can block, exempt, and  maneuver your privacy setting naman.  With my experiment, I found out that I am right.  My social media detox on my personal account don’t affect my blog, business, and work activities.

I also have more time to promote my posts on my all Hitokirihoshi’s social networking sites. I also appreciate the differences of contacts and friends on my personal and public accounts.  Well, not all my friends and acquaintances know that I am a blogger, into social media, or what I exactly doing for a living.

3. . Know the difference between intention vs impact of my post – Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram give us platforms for our freedom of self-expressions.  Kaya everyone can post anything, it’s just that there are types of  post/ message that made me think.  Eventually, too much of exposure of these will affect me negatively:

• Shared contents from unreliable sources – It irks me to see shared posts that obviously fabricated to become viral/ trending and make people angry (not to persuade public opinion). Then the sharers dignify the contents and add their opinionated messages (almost similar to rant and bashing). I know the intention is to voice out their sentiments, but what’s the impact of sharing fabricated contents?
• Sharing blow by blow account of their ventures/interests –  I  admit I am  guilty on this (but not in blow by blow type). So here’s my advice for all of us: before we publish our post especially the second/ follow-up about our particular interest/ issue–think!

What’s our intention? What our friends/ contacts  will perceive about ourselves? Do we really need to announce that we’re rich, superhuman, genius,  and  other? Nowadays, the boundary between sharing of joy and boasting is too thin. Over sharing about one personal issue, concern, and achievement is just simply nonsense for the others anyway.  In fact, we may forming wrong images in their minds.

Parang ganito lang ng wall na oversharing ( @blogapalooza)

4. I don’t have to comment and click likes. Funny, but sometimes people click “likes” without thinking. Yung totoo? who likes, death, accident, or random bad trip posts. Buti nauso ang emojis. As for me, I am prone to misinterpretation even if I read the whole content/message. I have low pick up when I randomly browsing or exhausted already. Besides that, I think there’s no harm of not reading and commenting at all. In fact, kung bigla ka lang mag-like sa isang post baka mas may impact.

Example: I am not commenting anymore about traffic jams because I work from home often. If I mention pa that I feel sorry for them out of sympathy, I may hurt and give them wrong impression.

I guess it’s good to just send private messages to sincerely give tips or express my concern. Or blog about social and political issues. After all, there are people who only fishing for reactions and not advice.

5. It’s good to know yourself and your friends straight from the heart – If I don’t watch my favorite actress Kate Winslet’s new film, it means I already don’t like her? It’s also the same with my friends on Facebook, I don’t  have to follow their every post. I also don’t want to taint my good vibes and right impressions about them because of our different opinions. Believe me, many pals unfriend each other because of their opposing political views last May? Why?!
   

   Yung posts na parang pimples este lobong sarap putukin dahil ka-stress? (@blogapalooza 2015)

Now with my mild social media detox – Unless I am promoting something worthy or have inquiries, I just try to keep things to myself.  I guess I am maturing and overcoming the aspect that I have to defend or prove my plans. Result-oriented people just do what they like to do without even informing anyone. Indeed, silence can do wonders!

Next: Rewards I Reap from my Social Media Detox