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addiction, BlackBerry, Facebook, flirting, friends, i phone, Online Communities, Social media, Social Networking, Social networking service, stay at home dads, stay at home mums, Trending and Popularity, Twitter
Yesterday, I took the hard decision to leave Twitter. It Baffles me why leaving a social networking site should be a tough decision ? When fellow followers asked why, the reasons where easy enough to explain, it was taking up all my time, I hadn’t read a book for a year. I didn’t like the way I would get narky with the children, if they interrupted my train of thought whilst I was tweeting. I’ve not written a word of that book that everyone has inside them, or lost a few hours drawing.
But, what bothered me the most was the fact that my every thought in the day and night was about twitter! I thought in tweets, would phrase things in my head as a post, had a complete running dialogue in my head as I carefully planned my next tweet. I was dreaming about people I have never met, I thought about my followers every waking moment, and was often found thinking about what was happening in their daily lives more than my own family and friends. I tweeted last thing at night, and slept with my phone under my pillow, and it was the first thing I reached for in the morning, to check mentions and latest tweets, even before saying good morning and kissing my husband.
I tried many times to just ignore my phone, when its sexy little beeps would let me know I was wanted. My heart would race, I was distracted and not matter what was going on, I had to know !!! And the release and satisfaction on feeling my phone in my hand and seeing my name pop up was immense, nearly gratifying ,a fix !
Thats when I realised…. I WAS ADDICTED ! Twitter was a drug that I couldn’t get enough of, and would go out of my way to find a minute to get a fix !
Dont get me wrong, I think Twitter is an amazing place. I’ve seen news stories break, been a party to fathers tweeting their wives births. Watched friendships bond, and witnessed a few feuds. I met some very interesting people, that perhaps in the real world our social circles would have never collided. The best thing for me was friendship. I made some great people who I think now I can call them friends.
Twitter enables you to socialise, when perhaps the opportunity at home doesn’t present its self. The STAY AT HOME MUMS AND DADS where the best company in the day. you could joke, swear, flirt a little, moan your socks off about the kids and someone would tweet you straight back and so the conversation commences.
So why am I leaving ? I miss them already, miss the tweets about music, films and being outrageously flirted with.
I had too, thinking about one thing, letting it control your thoughts and mood are not a good thing in my book.
I cried as I announced my departure. I cried more when the most lovely tweets came in, saying how much I would be missed, what fun I had been. in a way it was a bit like attending your own funeral, and I didn’t like it ! x These people had been the best friends and now I was dumping them.
you might say, just use twitter lightly, ive tried and I can’t and frankly i don’t think it works that way. Twitter was like a full-time job, and my family lost out.
So I’ve created this blog instead, hoping to focus my energy into just one or two posts a week,without the constant ding of my phone to suck me in ! no doubt this will slowly suck me in to, but hey whats life without an ADDICTION !
Thanks for taking the time to read x
Awesome Jo, It really struck a chord with me, It’s the truth, we are all being sucked into this void that is social media, I applaud you 🙂 xx
Thankyou so much for taking the time to read this caroline x x and thanks for leaving such lovely comments
love it Jo….very very true indeed xxxx
Thanks Nicky x x x I appreciate all the feedback x x
Well done. that must have been a very hard decision to make, what a profound “blog” you will make an exellent auther..writer..whatever..you wrote the first chapter which I have safely looked after, youn have a natural tallent with words, not many people have this advantage/gift, give yourself time..keep a note pad at the ready, write down your thoughts, feelings etc., even if you don,t make it to “print” …your children will have a living diary of your life, loves, dreams etc, an insight into what their Mum was all about , which leads their path in life too, their roots & heridage. This gift you have…your children will treasure & will take with them the rest of their lives. Love you XX
Thanks for such lovely comments x x I will endevour to do my best !! Xx
Such wise words Jo, you have my genuine admiration for making the decision to break the link. I have to admit I have to strictly ration my Tweeting but “think” I have it under control. Looking forward to keeping up via your blog and thanks for following mine too 🙂 x
OOK ! Thanks for finding me and taking the time to read my blog !! I have to admit, I never thought of blogging, not even on sat when I left twitter.But I felt I had still so much to say, especially about leaving, and the way it left me feeling 😦 Then when on sunday morning I decided to look up your blog, It dawned on me that I could do this too ! It fillls a gap that twitter has left and I’m hoping it dosent pull on me 24/7 ! But we’ll see ! x x at least on here my phone dosent do its sexy beep every five minutes !
Thanks for the follow and its a pleasure to follow yours x x
Twitter and Facebook really are like drugs! I find myself checking them compulsively. I’ve considered going on a social media diet myself. I think blogging is a great idea as an outlet. Now beware of spending all your newly free time checking your stats and commenting on other blogs! Best of luck to you!
Caution heeded ! Thanks for reading, its been really interseting seeing how people view social media, and most say they are addicted, but very few can give it up.
I couldnt give it up completely, hence the blog and missing it lots !! Hope to see you on here again soon. Jo x
Love this!!!!
Wow. I’m on Twitter but I rarely use it. I can’t get into it, much less get someone to even communicate with me. But I really don’t mind. I love blogging. Just be careful that you now don’t get addicted to your stats and likes!
Hi Muddledmom ! Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings ! It’s a Shame I’m not on twitter any more, we could of followed each other and I could of introduced you to some amazing people. It took me a good year to get properly going on twitter. You soon start to see pockets of people talking to each other, or I would follow people that a fav tweeter would tweet with and go from there. To me it wasn’t all about the famous people ( although I did ashamedly flirt and tweet a few ! ) it was the real people whj wanted to talk share experiences and make good friends x if you do keep going with it I’m sure you will find it very rewarding. A lot of bloggers usually tweet as well, they seem to be some of the most entertaining and interactive ! Try @tattooedmummy @motherventing @SAHDandproud and follow some of their followers and you pretty much can’t go wrong ! X