How Much Time Are You Spending On Facebook?

June 12, 2017 John Uncategorized No comments

In our last post, we looked at the time lost vegging out in front of the TV or computer.

Today, we tackle another big time thief – social media. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing tool, but it can also be quite distracting.

This is true for Facebook, Pinterest, Tumbler, Instagram. Or the social media platform of your choice.

The biggest problem with social media is that it’s everywhere. We check in from our computers, tablet, and of course the ever-present smartphone.

We get alerts, we check in when we’re bored, or have a couple of minutes to kill. Before we know it, thirty minutes or more have gone by that we’re not getting back.

Here’s an eye-opening exercise for you. Carry a pen and paper around with you. Use a click counter or an app on your phone and start keeping track of how many times you access social media per day.

Include any and all devices you use and add to the running total even when you’re looking at it “for a second.” It’s a good bet you’ll be a bit shocked by how high that number actually is.

This is one distraction that isn’t usually caught by the time log we talked about in an earlier post. The social media interactions are that quick and frequent.

And no matter how brief your stay on each platform, it all starts to add up and distract you from other things.

How often does Facebook commenting cause you to miss part of a conversation or a fun moment with your kids?

Or re-tweeting something, or pinning a fun craft idea that you likely won’t get around to trying?

Is it worth missing all those important little moments in life? Imagine how removing the constant distractions from social media could help you. You would have so much more time and mental energy.

We want to live with intention and do things with purpose. We don’t want to let social media posts tarnish that vision.

I’m not saying that there isn’t a time to use social media, far from it. They’re wonderful tools and great ways to connect with people.

But the downside is that they are so addictive. Don’t believe me?

Here’s another exercise for you. Commit to not using social media at all for 48 hours. Turn off or ignore the alerts on your phone and don’t allow yourself to go to the sites on your computer.

How does that feel? Do you miss it? Does it make you nervous or anxious?