Anti-Social Media

 Yesterday I outlined my goals for the year, and one of those goals was to have a series of mini-goals every month in the form of challenges.  For January I decided that I wanted to do a month of no social media.  There are a few reasons why I settled on this, the first being that it wastes a lot of time.  There's lots of scrolling and scrolling, and I do that instead of the other things that I could be doing that would probably make me feel more productive or at the very least be more rewarding. I know a lot of the reading I do on Twitter is actually news articles, so much of the time related to that is reading what's going on in the world. However, when I get to the end I just keep scrolling waiting to see something update, and I should be doing something else with my time instead, so it seems to make sense to limit social media.

That being said, I'm not going to give up my Instagram because I use it for my photo challenge, so it'd be hard to complete that if I wasn't on Instagram.  The other reason that I'm sticking with Instagram is that I don't follow all that much, so the daily scrolling is pretty low because it doesn't take long to scan through the photos. I also don't feel like it's quite as mindless scrolling as I generally only follow people I know, so I'm just seeing their pictures which is fun. I also follow places like the Department of Interior that post some amazing photos of the national parks.

However, that goes into my second reason for wanting to avoid social media (especially Facebook) for a bit, which is I just don't enjoy the culture on it anymore.  I rarely see posts that people make, it's just a bunch of nonsense that they are sharing. A lot of that sharing is also part of that social media psychology/social outlook that I really detest.  It's the kind of thing that old people use to shake their fists at and complain about Millenials (who are entering their 40s, so it's not really a good term to describe youths anymore). Everything is about "toxic" this or that, and immature viewpoints on communication and relationships.  I've found that just seeing all of it annoys me and I don't like it.  It's different when it's about things that people are doing or posts about what's going on, but it's really just become a drag and not worth it.

So far I'm on day two, and I'm not feeling like I'm missing anything. I mean, I don't know what's going on in the world, but I can always read the news, or watch the nightly news or something to see what's up rather than doom scrolling Twitter.  I of course don't feel like I'm missing anything on Facebook either since it's all reposts nonsense. I also don't feel like I'm missing much because the algorithm just doesn't show me anything I want to see. So, I'm feeling pretty good with my social media hiatus thus far, though there's still another 29 days to go, so who knows how it'll turn out.  

Goals 2021!

We're all glad to have 2020 in the rearview, and obviously, things aren't going to be instantly better this year because it's not 2020. However, things in 2020 were sucky, and we have the hope that things will start to get better than it was because things are changing.  There's a vaccine that's starting to get rolled out, there's a runoff in Georgia that could change the power in the Senate, and of course, the worst president in American history is getting shitcanned in less than three weeks. Hopefully, this year will start to feel more normal, and life can stop being so disrupted. Things might not be all that different from yesterday, but there is hope.  That being said, it's time to focus on what's going on for my goals for 2021. 

Goal Number One - Read 12 books: The past few years, this goal has been easy, in part because I had to do a ton of reading for classes.  Last year I didn't do well at all, and that was disappointing to me.  So, I'm going to again keep this goal at 12 since I only did 4 in 2020. One a month is reasonable, but I"m going to give myself a reach goal of 18, because that's also reasonable.  I think this year to help keep me on track and to try something new, I'm going to follow along with Life's Library book club.  I've never done a book club, and while I don't know that I'll subscribe, I may just get the books and perhaps join the discussion chats.  At the very least, I'll know what they're talking about when they discuss it on Dear Hank and John.  I think it'll also be fun to read books that perhaps I wouldn't pick on my own, but we'll see how it goes.

Goal Number Two - Focus on Fitness: Fitness is always my second goal, but I'm not sure what exactly to do for it. I've done weight loss goals lately but I've missed them. However, last year I did a bunch of mini-goals that were attainable, so I think I may go with that method this year.  My mini goals this year are:

• Subgoal 1: Close my three rings 75% of the time.  
• Subgoal 2: Create a schedule that includes two different activities a week.  
• Subgoal 3: Complete a 5k race (pending containment of COVID - virtual run if not contained).

Goal Number Three - Use a social calendar:  When I set this goal last year, I had no idea that Covid would really screw it up.  There was a large portion of the year that did not involve any socializing at all except for those in the house.  As it started to drag on some virtual game meets, as well as socializing via Zoom popped up, but it wasn't very organized.  I think this is a good goal to carry over again, and this time include being more focused on the virtual meets because they're good, but easy to overlook. 

Goal Number Four - Home Repair/Improvements: With all the work we did last year, I'm not sure where to go with this one, but there are some smaller projects I'd like to take care of this year.  First, the jerk cats have done some damage to our main floor bathroom, so fixing that will be a focus.  Then, there are outside projects that need to get done that include landscaping, repairing rotting trim work, and of course a deck. So, those are the goals for this year.

Goal Number Five - Monthly Challenges: I decided that I'm going to try some monthly challenges for things that I want to adjust, or perhaps avoid.  Maybe it's fitness, maybe it's mental health, who knows.  What I do know, is that for January I'm going on a social media diet.  It stresses me out, and I waste time on it, so I'm going to avoid it for the month of January, with the exception of Instagram.  I will say, I accidentally opened Twitter earlier and then realized what I was doing and shut it immediately, so that was a fun slip on the first day.  I don't think I'm going to miss it much.

Goal Number Six - Take three photos a day:  I started a daily Instagram last year to track my daily photo challenge, and I enjoyed it.  I thought I'd continue doing that this year, however, to help me on a goal I'm not including this year I'm going to fold it in here (just fold it in). So, one of the three photos I post must be something I did creatively such as drawing, painting, etc. 

Goal Number Seven - Have seven new experiences:  I always do this one, and I always enjoy it.  Last year didn't work out quite the way I expected, but I look forward to some new experiences in 2021.

So, there we have it, the 2021 goals. A lot of them are carried over, but was last year a real year? Let's be honest. Might as well just pretend that 2020 didn't happen and delete it and start over. But maybe 2020 is cursed, so we should call it something else, like Year Spicy Ramen or something. Good luck in 2021!