Hello, my name is Giselle and I’m addicted to social media!

Many of us have fallen prey to the endless time-sucking social media abyss.

It has happened to all of us. It happened to me today. During a time when I knew I should be doing something else, I logged into social media. My rationale: I’ll stay for “just a few minutes”, since I had decided only yesterday that I would spend one hour on social media. Before I knew it, half my day was gone! I had nothing to show for it.

I was feeling irritable and overwhelmed and was about to call it a day, and then I remembered I had my trusted companion book – “You are a Badass Every Day” by Jen Sincero.

I turned to the chapter, following the one I read this morning and read:

If you’re pretending you’re addicted to the sugary pull of immediate gratification brought on by negative impulses, keep in mind that staying disciplined is simply a matter of waiting and refocusing. It’s not some untamable best.

Waiting and refocusing…

At first I did not wait. I tried to push through but kept hitting a wall. I was beating up on myself for breaking my newly minted rule. Tal Gur, author of “The Art of Living Fully” asks the following which we can all relate to:

Have you ever tried, for example, not logging into social media for any length of time?

Soon you feel the urge grow stronger. What are you missing? What is everyone else doing and talking about? You think of several things you would like to post and want to see the comments on something you posted yesterday. Your mind repeatedly returns with a longing to log into your social media accounts.

As David Greenfield, Ph.D., founder of the Center for Internet Studies,
so eloquently put it, “It is a socially connecting device that’s socially isolating at the same time.”

I have been threatening to take a break from social media, but so far, I haven’t done anything about that…yet!

The truth is I haven’t made a decision. I like the idea, I know it’s going to be beneficial for me, but I haven’t really decided. Why do I say that?

Because the definition of “Decision” actually has Latin roots. The meaning of the word “decide” comes from the Latin word, decidere, which is a combination of two words:

• de = ‘OFF’ +
• caedere = ‘CUT’

CUT + OFF = DECISION!

To decide literally means to CUT OFF everything except the things that matter most and if I am honest, I am not ready to cut it off completely.

In the meantime, I will practice waiting and refocusing.

As Jen concludes in the short chapter without a name:

Living a life in which you’re constantly letting yourself down and feeling powerless against distractions and impulses is hard; waiting a few seconds and retraining your focus to achieve success is easy.

Today I finally chose easy!