No Internet Day

What is a whole day without social media like?

I wanted to answer that question through a little experiment I set for myself. Being without social media for an entire day is something I can easily do on a normal workday, since the demands of the day leave me little chance to fail the small test.

So I chose a day off at home, and decided to do it yesterday, Sunday. At first I thought about banning social media, but then I also decided not to go online at all, because I was sure muscle memory would make me go straight to Instagram, X, or even Hive. I had to give up my commitment to try to post daily on Hive, even though I had content ready to share.

I told my wife, and she said it was a good plan, but not to count on her to join me. I thought it would be harder to face Sunday without the internet. But there’s so much to do outside the screens. For example, the first thing I did was make good progress in my reading of White Fang. I stopped at the part where the Native Americans encounter the wolf cub and his mother, and give him the name that titles the book.

After that, I cooked lunch at home. I hadn’t done it in several days and wanted to test my own seasoning. I had some trouble with the rice, but nothing major. The rest of the day I spent at a friend’s house nearby.

I didn’t know it, but he was celebrating with other friends from his neighborhood his departure from Cuba. Between whiskey and dominoes, the rest of the afternoon slipped away. Even there I got a call from a coworker asking me for some patient details for a colonoscopy I had evaluated. She had written to me on WhatsApp, but I didn’t see those messages until today. Good thing she called.

Conclusions?

Living without social media is hard but not impossible. I didn’t miss at all the short content designed specifically to make us addicted. However, there were some very useful things I needed to check, but because of the restrictions I only realized them this morning.

Several people wrote to me needing more or less instant answers, but in my defense, what was truly important was communicated to me through conventional calls and SMS. So, there are NO excuses for living away from the screens. All that time we waste watching garbage online can be used to learn and dedicate ourselves to our well-being.

I encourage you to do without it for a day, and see how it goes. Or maybe… are you addicted?

_{English isn't my native language. Text translated with DeepL}

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