A Week Off Social Media

Off Facebook for a week and it’s a mixed bag of emotions and experiences. For starters, the number of times I pick up my phone and swipe to the Facebook app, as my brain says “Let’s check Facebook” followed by the thousandth realization that it’s not there, is downright creepy. I grab for my phone constantly and 9 out of 10 times, my brain seeks social media. And when I land on the screen where my apps used to live, I don’t just leave the phone. I find the next distraction. Weather, news, audio, games… It’s one thing to listen to Pandora on a car ride, but reading the news while walking the dog is not necessary and a poop hazard. The next step of this experiment will be to limit my phone use overall because I can feel the phone pulling on my psyche almost as much as I felt social media’s tractor beams.

The next realization is that I miss Facebook and I miss social media, but not that much. I feel a little more isolated and lonely, but I’m more aware of the richness of the in-person relationship as opposed to the quick dopamine tickle of a social media alert. Nevertheless, I do feel the dreaded Fear of Missing Out. I just need to keep focused on the fact that I’m mostly missing out on a noise of chaos and/or celebration that doesn’t really matter to my top priorities at the moment.

I have to make a confession. I’ve already found ways to incorporate Twitter and Instagram into this blog. This is technically a social media cheat, but let’s look at this in the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. My goal is to not get caught up in the topic/crisis/celebration de jour of the social media experience. So, with that in mind, I unfollowed almost everyone. Now my Twitter feed is plugged into The Daddy Experience so I can post short ideas and they can pop up here. I also created a photos page with my most recent Instagram photos. If I can use these as tools without being sucked into the void, I feel like I’m on the right track.

Family and close friends still want to know “what’s up with The Galans,” so Nicole and I started a very small 23Snaps account. It allows us to have a mini-FB with our very close family and friends who are actually interested in seeing pictures of my kids without them being available to the ogling public. I’ve debated going onto Facebook to remove pictures, but I’m still on the fence. I haven’t missed posting, but I’ve missed sharing. This Daddy Experience and 23Snaps should quell that without me needing to constantly be tethered to everyone else’s thoughts.

Overall, I give disconnection with social media a 10 out of 10. That rating might change, but I doubt it.

Visitor Log and Forecast – June 1, 2013

When we first told our family that we were moving to San Diego they were happy until they realized we were serious…then came the grieving process including the “bargaining” stage.  This is when family and friends explained that they would not visit, and therefore we should not move.  Well, the visitor bubble has been breached and they are starting to flow.  

The following is a list of the planned trips over the next few months.  Who wouldn’t want to visit beautiful San Diego, again and again and again and …?

My parents and my sister left this morning from a 1-week visit to our new home in San Diego.  My mom will be back for her next visit in exactly 6-weeks.  However, in 11 days my mom’s sister, my aunt (better known as “Auntie”) will be here for her week visit from the 12^th to the 19^th of June.  Three weeks after Auntie leaves is when Mom comes back.  

When mom is done with her second visit in July, we will have a whole week off before my mother-in-law and sister-in-law join us from August 1^st to August 6^th.  Less than 24 hours after they take off, my father lands.  He will stay with us for 2 weeks.  And then, it’s over…but only for 6 weeks when mom returns with her mother, Aggie (my grandmother and my kids’ “Nana”). 

In our first 6 months, we have visitors here for 2 months, or 1/3 of the time that we are here.  It’s as if we are keeping the vacation warm as people come back and forth.  We didn’t move…we bought a bed and breakfast (and we love it…the more family, the better).