Off-Ju-line: offline for July.

As a combat to spending time needlessly on social media, I have decided to take the entirety of July without going on any social media. Specifically Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. I’ve branded the month off-Ju-line; if you haven’t figured out the genius then its a combination of ‘offline’ and ‘July’.

Don’t fall into the online void of social media.

Now I know ‘offline’ would literally mean going without the internet and as liberating as that would be, it is not going on the internet that is the problem I want to combat. The internet is a useful tool that can be wielded to do incredible things, however there are unfortunately areas of the internet that simply contribute to time wasting. Furthermore, these areas tend to be where the majority of us spend most of our online time.

More recently, I feel that people are becoming more and more aware to the addictive side of these social media sites. The learned behaviour of wanting to spend any spare moment looking at a newsfeed which is working on an algorithm designed to keep you on it for as long as possible, simply because the longer you’re scrolling, the more money that company make. It doesn’t take much research to find out that this constant scrolling is contributing to inactivity, unproductive lifestyles, screen addiction and ultimately ill-mental health.

Now I’ve said in many posts, on the whole I am very good at not spending a whole lot of time scrolling on the screen. My routine and dedication to a healthy lifestyle means that I don’t allow for many opportunities to scroll. However, thats not to say I don’t participate in scrolling. So that is why I am going to challenge myself to go throughout the whole of July with absolutely no use of any social media site.

Now here’s my strategy: I have removed the apps from my phone, logged out all of my accounts on my computer and laptop and I have decided I will log my progress on this blog in daily posts. The daily posts also help with filling the time that I would usually scroll, especially whilst sat on my computer or laptop – I will simply write blog posts instead. The other strategy I am implementing is to listen to podcasts when I would usually watch YouTube, read or draw/doodle when I would usually have a quick scroll on Instagram or Twitter.

So yes, no social media and blog posts everyday.
Psyched.
BG