.. and truth be told I learned SO MUCH.

1. We truly bitch about everything.

I’m sorry, that may be too blunt for some of you. You know, I was raised to never question someone on their political stance or ask about their salary. This doesn’t mean I avoid any heavy conversations, it just means I’m a little more respectable about the way I share my own opinion and learn about others. I get it, if you put something on social media you’re opening the door for criticism and discussion – but oh my goodness you guys! The way I see people talking to one another on Twitter is just downright disrespectful. I see someone tweets about how green the grass is today and 12,000 others from around the world with different backgrounds and environments have to use words like “stupid” and “idiotic” to disagree.

At first I was angry, and then I was just sad.

2. We waste so much time looking at… junk.

I get it. Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with Aunt Sally who lives over in West Virginia and only visits every other Christmas. You miss her kids and she wants to know how mom and pop are doing. I won’t argue, I get it.

However, when you open the app to look at the new post Cousin Jimmy tagged you in you start to scroll. Then after scrolling you see a photo of your ex-best friend Betty and you click. Then there’s a post Jesse made on Betty’s wall and you see you have 29 mutual friends so you investigate how you know that person and before you know it you’re creeping on someone named Whitney’s brother because he’s hot but in reality he lives in Florida and the chances of your paths crossing are 1 in a million. (But he’s interested in going to a craft beer festival in Orlando next weekend, win/win!)

Point blank: you’re missing out while you’re scrolling in an attempt to keep from missing out. Think about it the next time you aimlessly scroll. Just really, truly think about it.

3. We are less productive.

Part of this diet entailed turning my notifications off. What I noticed was that I had no inclination to open the app if there wasn’t a little red dot in the upper corner.

So I turned them all off. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Snapchat. No random buzzing to look down at. No screen lighting up in the middle of a conversation. Guess what; I finished my to-do list! Like even some stuff got done early!! (WHAT?!?!)

Honestly though it’s only been 5 work days and I can truly tell you I feel like I’m working. Not that I didn’t before, (hey work friends) but my mind is 100% focused on what’s happening at my desk.

4. I am easily irritable.

Ok..ok.. we all already knew this one! Honestly though after taking a short break I would scroll through Twitter and have an urge to reply, “nobody cares!” or “stop being a douchebag 🙃” to people’s tweets. I mean, even to myself. (And I really used twitter as a way to talk to myself..)

5. I won’t go back.

Ever. I refuse to turn notifications back on and I will forever question why I’m on an app when I open it. This mini-experiment was just focused on social media, but I think it’s true for nearly everything on our devices including games and magazines.

I know the majority of things mentioned in this post have been said before, but until you personally try it out you don’t realize how real it is.

XOXO – Kristin.