Let’s be honest, my life revolves around social media. Instagram, Facebook, this blog, not to mention my beloved career is centered on creating E-blasts, blogging, Tweets, posts, website copy, round-ups, exclusives… the list goes on. And I freakin’ love it.

But it’s hard not to be consumed by my own thoughts because of it all.

Lord knows I love me a good social experiment, but my motivation for this one wasn’t anthropological or for the sake of science. Prior to this week, it had gotten to the point where I struggled to turn off the overthinking, analyzing, and ever-evaluating. I couldn’t get out of bed in morning without first scrolling through the three Insta accounts, two Facebooks, one Twitter, and a partridge in a pear tree. No but really there’s also the three email accounts and two sets of text messages.

Communication chaos.

On top of it all, and I’m not proud to admit it, but Good Lord Almighty the insta-stalking was out of control. And these new algorithms were throwing me off my game, making me obsess over and compare myself to an exorbitant amount of people. Celebrities, strangers, and friends alike.

I’m entering into a new stage of life. I can feel the transition. I’ve gone so far as to start a new journal .. exciting ya? And I wonder who & how I’d transition if social media had less of an influence. Wherein I’m not positioning a specific life on social media, and I’m not letting the lives of others influence me so significantly. For seven whole days.

Thus I embarked upon my Social Media Seven Day Sabbatical. 

To properly prepare I deleted all social media off my personal phone so I wouldn’t be tempted. I still had work access of course, but it was condensed, and not the first thing I scrolled through in the morning.

Instead, per Miss Laura’s suggestion, I downloaded Rick Warren’s Daily Hope App, which I read and pondered first thing every morning.

A lot happened over these seven days despite my social media silence, so here’s my recap:

DAY ONE, Sunday  – First thing I noticed, I’m all of a sudden a much better driver. Heh.

I also no longer have a physical wall I can employ for when I’m uncomfortable. Which means I’m forced to make conversation with strangers.. yikes.

Spotted on my morning run.. but was totally ripped up the next day. I would destroy it too though, if it was in front of my house. I wouldn’t want haunting me in my sleep vv 

These two gross love birds vv 

Yes I’m drinking red wine at 11 AM. Judge me. vv 

Having a friend who’s an incredible chef has quite a few benefits, which sometimes involves a bit of R& D (apparently that stands for Research & Development) vv 

Second part of the adventure was Jenn’s birthday duffy boat!

DAY TWO, Monday  – Guys , I got so much done today.

The only bummer was the massive migraine in the evening. It’s undeterminable whether it’s due to Instagram withdrawals or the fact that I (once again) haven’t slept in days.

DAY THREE, Tuesday –  Typically I’d be sharing my thoughts and life with the universe through open posts. Without that, I find myself talking to God much more. There’s a real tangible bliss to it.

There’s also a sort of limitlessness to life’s potential. I’m not determining personal goals based on the confines of what’s already been done (and posted), I.E. I want to do that too, or I want to do that better. Instead I’m determining my own, personal desires based on what’s in my head and in my heart.

DAY FOUR, Wednesday – Today’s epiphany surprised me. I’ve realized that I use Facebook and Instagram to keep track of what my loved ones are doing. I sincerely enjoy liking their posts. It’s a way to keep in touch and stay in one another’s lives no matter the time or distance. Plus I love supporting people in all their endeavors. There are so many cool humans in this world and I feel so lucky that social media allows me to share in their lives.

Social media is also my main source of news, turns out. I feel left out of the current event loop. I’m dying to read everything about this Brock Turner Stanford Rape Case, but where do I go if not Facebook? Yahoo news? Yikes.

Lunch. Yumm vv

DAY FIVE, Thursday – After five days of this ishh I’ve been able to confirm that who I depict myself to be on social media IS who I am. There’s a physical filter, but that’s it. I’m candid with my thoughts, mistakes, opinions, goals. I am who I am, and I unabashedly display this.

I have realized, though, that without the prompt of social media I have no excuse to take an excessive amount of photos. So these great moments aren’t being documented and I fear that I’m going to forget it all.

Like when Alyssa and I watched Teen Witch and died laughing the entire time at the stupidity of it all. Or after the movie was over, when my migraine on Monday kept me from seeing straight, Alyssa sweetly packed up my leftovers into individual containers so I could take them to work for lunch the next day.

My goal was to dwell less, but when I don’t post, I fear I’ll forget and consequentially I dwell more.

Sunset Marquis vv 

DAY SIX, Friday –  As it turns out, I am severely lacking in Resting Bitch Face. People apparently think I am quite approachable. Never have so many strangers spoken to me. Never have I been hit on quite so much.

Now I know, moving forward, if in arms length of weirdos… phone up. If in arms length of cute boy.. phone down.

I’m also so much more aware. I actually saw the motocop hiding in the bushes on San Vicente.

At one time, Linda celebrated my birth. Now I’m celebrating her and Kris! Life is so cool. vv 

Love my chefs  vv 

Love me some truffle honey vv 

Love my ladies vv 

Love us all some great wine vv

Love where I get to work every day vv

And my kind mixologist decided to drop a Decontructed Negroni on the table in honor of Negroni Week. Do not love me some gin. vv

DAY SEVEN, Saturday – Well, so no surprise, social media is a placater. It thinks for us, keeps us from noticing what’s going on around us, and sets boundaries and expectations. Not to mention the likes and followings give us enough temporary satisfaction to mitigate our greater sense of hunger, thereby preventing us from going after larger, scarier goals.

On the flip side, I struggled to write copy all week. It turns out that the stream of images on my feed provide inspiration and a source of competition. They also produce a constant float of terms, ideas, and phrases in my brain.

Overall this experiment was like an allergy test in which I omitted the substance entirely to see its effect on my life, resulting in a cleanse of histamines. Now I have a much greater grasp on how it effects me; a better understanding of when I should implement restraint in order to calm the communication chaos.

I.E. When running, when driving, when in social situations with people I love, or people I don’t know. More importantly – I should not be knee deep into Instagram first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

Sidenote -I also totally thought my sister was mad at me but upon re logging into Instagram I realized that we communicate 80% of the time through tagging each other on memes and quotes. She’d been tagging me, but I hadn’t seen any of it.

Back at work Saturday morning for brunch. Lordy the truffles on that omelet  were killer vv 

And a birthday celebration for sweet Laura in the evening. Whom this entire blog is dedicated to, being that she was the one who gave me this idea through her own practices. There’s not a day I take this lady for granted. There’s nothing better than a friend who simultaneously challenges and loves on you. 

Happy birthday my beautiful friend. So glad you were born.. Obviously. And I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things God blesses you and Ty with in this next year of your life and marriage. Hopefully more pills and less poop on the kinder walls. vv