Blackout

There has been a lot in the media of late about people giving up social media, and the positive changes it has made in their lives. Switching off in such a technology driven world is something many of us would find hard to do. Most of us check in with our platforms regularly and browse around numerous times a day. But lately, I’ve been doing a bit of soul-searching. It was all brought on the other day after Princess yet again checked the mail box to yet again find nothing for her but instead a lot for me in the form of bills (Yes!! How I do love a bill or five, not!!). Her bottom lip dropped with sadness in her eyes, but how on earth was I to explain that in this day in age, she would most probably never or very rarely receive any ‘good’ mail of her own?

I have also been getting quite put off with Facebook of late, so many ads and suggested sites, friends seem to be posting status updates less and less, and then there was an incident where many of my circle of friends found a site with many of our baby photos on it. I do however love getting on there and seeing what my Bloggy friends have to say, and when they have posted something new, apart from that though, there isn’t much else that seems to be holding me there anymore…… yet I seem to check it regularly each day and continue to get frustrated by it. And you know what I really hate? When you are having a conversation with friends and they give you some news, and you ask them where they heard it from “Oh I saw it on Facebook”…… do people even really talk to each other face to face anymore?

I miss making phone calls to girlfriends, remember the days of racing home from school to make calls to all your friends, yeah that! I miss writing letters and posting them off eagerly awaiting a reply, days, weeks, months. And I miss printing off photos to show people, rather than posting them online or emailing them. Think about it for a second, be honest, what do you miss?

Prompted too by a Bloggy pal (who I just received this beautiful hand written letter from in the mail) who I’ve been lucky enough to meet in real life, who is taking a 100 day break from all social media, I’m making a pledge, I’m making a change, I’m setting a date, and I’m having a Facebook blackout. Instead, I hope to reconnect and connect with friends via mail, telephone calls and god-forbid actual catch-ups and talking face to face! I’ll live in the moment with my beautiful family and probably find some time for myself too! I’m going to put it out there on me personal page if anyone wants to be my ‘pen pal’ and I’d love some from here too…..so if you are interested, shoot me an email! Once I have some friends to write to, I’ll be logging off Facebook for three months. You will still be able to find me here, and on my other favourite platform Instagram, but that is purely because these two make my heart sing!

Bel x