Lent

I grew up Catholic and while I'm not a regularly practicing Catholic anymore (Yup, I've turned into a Chreaster.), I usually still give up something for Lent. Last year I gave up going to Starbucks. Instead of stopping in for my thrice weekly chai latte, I drank tea or hot chocolate at work. I had been a little concerned about the cost as well as needing the caffeine. I gave it up without a problem...but couldn't wait to stop on our way home on Easter Sunday! I found that what I missed the most was stopping in to my neighborhood Starbucks and seeing the friendly faces each morning. My baristas know my order and my name and I missed that more than I missed the chai latte itself.

This year, after much deliberation, I decided to give up Facebook and Twitter. I still checked my notifications and, towards the end of Lent, stalked the @BadgerMBB Twitter feed for Final Four news. I also continued to follow my Instagram feed to at least keep a bit of a pulse on things. Additionally, I still posted a few things on Facebook. But I didn't spend time browsing Facebook or Twitter or keeping up with them like usual. I decided to do this because I was starting to feel anxious about not having time to see everyone's posts/tweets. FOMO (fear of missing out) is strong in me, I guess.

Do you know what I found out? I didn't miss it. Well, not really. I missed the news. (Yes, Facebook and Twitter are my main sources of news.) On the plus side, I had a lot of time on my hands. I cleaned up my email inbox including articles I had sent myself to read from April 2014. I actually listened to TED talks (this one and this one) for the first time. My reader (online log of websites/blogs I subscribe to) was at zero most nights.

But (there's always a but) I definitely feel like I need to be back on these social media sites. Most of my friends communicate with me through them. Also, all those articles I finally had the time to read caught my attention from Facebook or Twitter. However, I definitely need to cut down on the time I spend on them. I probably need to cut down on the number of people I follow. My goal for the next couple of weeks is to figure out how to make this more manageable.