My name is Kym Hall I have 511 followers, 301 friends, I have tweeted 5,039 times this year and my most used word is ‘Oh’ according to my status update records. If this is a foreign language to you, congratulations, you have not yet succumb to the trappings of social media. For those that know what I’m talking about and in return can resite your number of followers,  I feel your pain.   

 

On my morning run last week I was contemplating what my next status update would be. I had spent so much of my time contemplating this notion that before I knew it my run was over and I had missed taking in the morning views that I love so much. It was at this moment that I realised social media was taking over my thoughts and impacting on my life more than I care to think. I started to analysis how much time I had spent tweeting this year, and came to realise I had wasted so much time tweeting about my life I forgot look around and enjoy it. At one stage I was referring to my friends as their twitter alias and when attending networking meetings I would tweet about the meeting even though the people I was tweeting were already there.

After much deliberation I decided to take a social media break. My plan was to stay off the sites till the New Year. I’m sorry to report I only lasted 3 days. But I am happy to report in those 3 days I felt much more liberated and in control of my thoughts and feelings. The best thing that came out of this break was that I managed to get so much done. Instead of stalking profiles and procrastinating I spent time talking to people, writing my travel blog and interacting with the world outside!

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot to be thankful for using social media, and to be honest I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t signed up for Twitter. However when ‘@marthapink’ is tweeting that she is in bed with her boyfriend, I have to think that this is social media gone too far. Who cares that I am eating peanut butter and jam or that I’m all sweaty after my run. So now I embrace the social media websites with fun and caution. Each time I update my status I ask myself the question – and what?  I have yet to fully release the trappings of the social media websites, but I can report that I will never again miss the views on my run because my mind is so preoccupied with what my next status update will say.