What Is Social Media Distancing & Why We Do It — Elle Muse

Life might seem to be ‘on-hold’ in the midst of this pandemic. However, to many of us, it’s busier than ever because we are occupied with passive activities affecting our physical and mental health. A 24-hour social media distancing was the best thing I did to stay focussed, relaxed and organized.

Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling frustrated and distracted with the ongoing news and feeds about the Covid-19 pandemic. The issue has become a “sensational” online colossal saturated with conflicting news, advice, opinions, and statistics. The dreadful name bursts from every digital screen (TV, laptop and mobile) to a point where I felt fearful it would pierce through the screen and conquer my respiratory tract system. Plus, I became paranoid every time someone sneezed or coughed at home. Our house has turned into an environment saturated with airborne particles because we are trapped indoors with a pet. We can’t help but feel stuffy and sick while couped inside our own little oasis. Social media has turned into a toxic stream of despair and forgery.

Social Media Toxic Content

Since everything I work on revolved around social media, I spend most of my day curating online content, exploring and identifying ideas to write about. Until the descent of the evil coronavirus upon humanity, Social Media was a source of authenticity and inspiration. The virus brought us a frenzy of venomous content, “bait” headers and an endless array of useless and addictive videos. I needed to test distancing myself from the gloom and doom of social feeds and news.

Withdrawal Symptom

I made a firm decision to “distance” myself from the usual social media outlets I consume every day including Facebook, IG, Pinterest, Linkedin, and TikTok. Guess what I discovered? In the last 2 weeks, I had become addicted to Covid-19 feeds. And, by noon, I began to experience withdrawal symptoms and felt the urge to check my phone. What’s everyone posting on Facebook and Linkedin? Did I miss new ideas to keep us occupied at home? What are the influencers saying and recommending on Instagram to make us feel good?

Breaking Free

No, I will not surrender to the temptations and urge to touch the phone. There are so many things I can do at home without making an effort to see what everyone else is doing and sharing. And in the midst of the withdrawal, a sense of calmness, strength, and focus began to emerge. I became content with the ‘life is on hold’ status; a life that was once filled with the unnecessary necessities we created for ourselves. It’s now time to go back to basics.

Time is on our side, again

Social media distancing opened up time to think, organize and to produce. These 24 hours were free of anger and anxiety, yet filled with hope, creativity, and productivity. The “spare time” is occupied with life-enriching activities like:

Coding online games

I bought Code Your Own Games book for my son to help keep him occupied during school closure. Little did I know that we’d be spending time learning coding online games together. The best part of it is, we can play these games, of which, he looks forwards to playing them with his friends.

Jogging

I finally had time to use the home gym equipment. Yesterday, I went down to the basement, dusted off the treadmill and jogged for a full hour.

Teaching

There’s no way I’ll allow the virus to affect my child’s education, regardless of closures. I enrolled him in a prototype online educational platform, which is currently being tested by the school board. Luckily, my friend is involved in the development of the prototype and was able to set him up as a user. As much as I lack the patience and dread the process of teaching a child, I am taking it upon myself to ensure he doesn’t forget what he learned at school.

Preparing all 3 meals

Why waste time watching TikTok videos and IG stories when we can spend that time creating healthy meals as a family? I told my family that part of preventing the infection, we have to cook meals ourselves. For the first time ever, I am experimenting with all these social media recipes videos and ingredients.

Live chats with family and friends

When we allow certain mediums to consume our time, we lose perspective on what is socially important, and that is time with people we love. We opt for short messages and shares as opposed to intimate live conversations with family and friends. By distancing myself from social media, I got to spend time catching up with a close friend and a dear relative.

Watching movies

I finally had time to finish watching the movie Gone With The Wind! OK, I started watching it 5 days ago, and then was interrupted by “other things”. But last night, I sat and watched the final hour of the movie before bedtime. If it wasn’t for taking this initiative to put my phone away, I wouldn’t have had the time to watch this 4-hour movie!

Livestream informational session

And yes, I spent 45 minutes watching a Livestream by Google Adsense geared towards women in publishing. In that session, I learned about all the recent Google Adsense enhancements and changes designed to improve publisher, advertiser and audience engagements with online ads.

In summary, social media distancing is a great exercise I recommend we all take into consideration now more than ever. With everything going on, people who disengage from social media are able to recharge their batteries and fill out their boredom with enriching pursuit. Take a 24-hour social media distancing challenge and see how you’re feel soon after. We are all desperate to reduce anxiety, increase productivity, and build more intimate relations with your loved ones. #socialmediadistancing #stayhome #socialdistancing #socialisolation #covid19

Originally published at https://ellemuse.com on March 25, 2020.