Raise your hand if you’ve heard me talk about my ambivalence about social media. OK, everyone, you can put your hand down now.
This week, I decided to stop posting on Instagram. In short, while occasionally entertaining, it is an unnecessary attention suck that keeps me tethered to my phone and often leaves me feeling anxious.
I've long been worried about device addiction. I remember a scene from the kitchen table when my daughter was 4. I was working from my phone, and she was coloring pictures of princesses.
She asked me, “Mom, if you were a Disney princess, which one would you be?"
I wasn’t listening and asked her to repeat the question.
She replied, annoyed with me now, “I said, If you were a Disney princess, which one would you be?”
So I told her, “Belle. Because she loves to read, and so do I.”
She went back to coloring and muttered, “You don’t like to read. You like to work and put me in time out.”
That was when I deleted my work email app and deactivated my social media accounts for the first time.
Reducing distractions helps me be a better mother and also benefits my work. Leadership coaching and strategy development require presence and connection. Scrolling through Insta doesn't provide the mental material to fuel me.
I'm grateful that my network is strong and I don't need to use the internet for marketing. I'm still committed to sharing meaningful ideas in other ways, like in the MindFrame Minute.
Cheers to pruning my commitments! What would you do with your extra time if you swore off social media?
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