Yesterday, I stuck to my guns with my new rule of only checking Facebook and Instagram twice a day. I’m not a big Twitter user, so that one’s a little easier to get under control.
It’s funny. Now that I’ve started tracking my time on Facebook, I’m trying to blow through it as quickly as I can. I’m more aware of how I would idly scroll through my feed when using my apps, but because of my Kill News Feed plug-in, I don’t do that as much on the desktop version.
That’s right, I can focus. :)
So yesterday, I tracked what I did on social and for how long and here’s what happened.
12:25 p.m. (Christmas time!) - Logged in to Facebook and wrote and posted my blog in 3 places with a tiny bit of variation. I didn’t look at any of my notifications.
12:31 p.m. - Logged off
12:34 p.m. - Posted my blog on Twitter and edited my tweet for character length (I think I should start posting on Twitter first to save time). I also read 5 notifications and retweeted a friend’s tweet.
12:35 p.m. - Boom! I’m outta there!
12:35 p.m. - Put on Spotify “Focus” Playlist (gotta stay on brand)
12:36 p.m. - Checked Facebook notifications and scrubbed through a video of a Wiener dog in a mini Wienermobile (I used to drive the Wieniebago, so people send me wiener-related content all the time. It’s buns of fun!)
As a former Hotdogger, I get every Wienermobile post that’s out there, which is great. This one was a first (or should I say a “wurst first.” ;)
12:44 p.m. - Logged off Facebook
9:28 p.m. - Responded to a friend’s message on Instagram and left to find her a TED talk link.
9:29 p.m. - I had crappy cell service, so I stopped looking and did something else. Maybe ate dinner?
9:55 p.m. - Looked at a few stories and responded to one. Not sure when I left Instagram. My bad.
10:31 p.m. - Logged in to Facebook and checked my 22 notifications (That’s half of what they were the previous day. Hmmm. Progress?) One of them was about my friend Gastor Almonte’s comedy album dropping today, so I downloaded it and shared it on social in a few places with a custom message. I think it’s important to promote other people’s work who you believe in and I like to help my fellow storytellers.
10:48 p.m. - Logged off Facebook
10:49 p.m. - Posted a tweet about Gastor’s comedy album on Twitter on both of my accounts. Seriously, you should download it.
10:52 p.m. - Signed out
11:50 p.m. - Sent my friend the TED talk link on Instagram and recommended she download Gastor Almonte’s and Jess Salomon’s comedy albums. Jess is not only ridiculously funny and talented, but she’s Canadian!
Gastor is one of the funniest people I know. Download his comedy album asap.
So the final tallies are:
Total time on Instagram - Not sure
(I never tracked when I left the app the second time I went on. I’m still logged into Instagram because you can’t post things from the desktop. I’m guessing I was on there for 15 minutes, but it could have been longer.)
Total time on Twitter - 4 minutes
Total time on Facebook - 31 minutes
TOTAL TIME ON SOCIAL - 50 minutes*
That is almost an hour of my day. Wow. It’s making me want to only check it once a day now. Hmmm… Perhaps that’ll be today’s challenge. We’ll see, but I’m definitely going to make time this weekend to listen to my friends’ comedy albums and I hope you do, too. They are so damn funny.
How much time do you spend on social media? Do you think it’s more than you would guess? Try tracking your usage for a day. If you have an iPhone, you can check your usage with these handy tips.
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