Social Media Diet Journal

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube…… normally my day starts with these social media. However, since I got a project about social media diet plus midterm is coming, so I decided to try the diet.

Here is my normal routine during weekends: Wake up around 10 am, lay on the bed and browse all the social media that I use: Wechat(a Chinese social media), Chinese Twitter(I don’t use the original Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest esc. Basically I just check one by one until I got all the new things which can take a LONG time (around 4 hours!). After that, I finally leave my lovely bed and get dressed, eat breakfast and get out to work. During work time I won’t get any chance to check my phone due to the policy, but as long as I go back home, the process of checking social media starts again……. Actually it’s pretty boring.

Base on the article Everything You Need to Know About a Digital Sabbatical, here are the things that I won’t do during this weekend:

◾Surfing the web.

◾Checking email.

◾Updating twitter or Facebook.

◾Moderating blog comments.

In fact, because I want to be success of this diet, I uninstalled almost all the social media app on my phone (I kept Wechat in case my parents in China couldn't find me)

So, here we go:

On Saturday morning, because I had a meeting at school, so I skipped the morning social media /lay on the bed routine which is a good start. After meeting I decided to study in the computer room to study for midterm. However, my first reaction when I waiting for turn on the computer (the computer in the lab is pretty slow to turn on) was check Facebook, and then I realized that I am on the diet so I tell myself “no”. At the same time computer are finished preparing. I started to review the PowerPoint from blackboard and prepare for the time. During the time when I review the PowerPoint, again I tried to check Facebook on the computer. When I type Facebook on Google, the voice in my head said: What are you doing dude?! I realized I am on the diet. After that I going to work and when I go home, I tried to avoid using computer or cellphone because as long as I use computer or cellphone, I gonna check all my social media, so I decided to listen to the music and watching movie with my girlfriend which is pretty good.

On Sunday morning, I felt it’s been so long that I didn't dance anymore. I used to be a bboy(break dance dancer) when I was in China, but because I have work and school at the same time, I feel like I forget my habit. However, since I am on social media diet and I have nothing to do, I decided to practice dance a bit. I was so happy that I can find my interest again as well as find myself. After dancing, I spent my afternoon to clean my car. I love my car so much. But during the time I clean my car, I was trying to check my social work because I was tired and I tried to have a break, normally I would check my phone so… actually I checked for about 10 minutes we chat and then I realized that I was on the diet. I failed in the end.

Unfortunately there was no people contact with me which is pretty sad. Everyone has a phone and computer and everyone enjoy social media which is crazy. The way used to be communicated was talking face to face or write a letter or phone, but now it’s so hard to see each other face to face especially I am in Canada and I have a lot of friends and family member in China. Sometimes I feel so lonely because I am the only person in my family who is in Canada. I really appreciate my girlfriend spends a lot of time with me and that makes me feel like home. But when she went to work and  only me at home, I really feel lonely and boring. I guess in the future, I will spend more time to communicate with people face to face instead of on social media because that’s really who I am and I want to have more friends. Also, I will keep my habit dance because that really makes feel alive.