Blogging used to be this sort of short form brain dump. My old site had posts that were three sentences long next to posts that were a thousand words. Not every bit of content was a treasure but it was real content and it was compelling even if only for that moment in time.
I remember sitting in meetings with men who created media, real media, expensive media and they’d ask me how I built my audience and I’d look them right in the eye and say, “I’m honest.”
Well, these days I’m still honest. I’m honestly burnt out and it’s my own doing. I’ve fractured my days and devoted time to Facebook to G+ and to twitter. Then I’ve taken what’s left over and put it here. Which means that here suffers and the content I’m creating is neither fresh nor interesting.
There are a lot of problems with overusing social media and one of them is a lack of real life conversation. I want to be with my girlfriends and be able to talk about what happened without them saying “Oh I know I saw that on Facebook.” I want to be more interested in what they have to tell me because I haven’t already read their thoughts on Facebook. I love Tony’s snark on Facebook but I really really miss texting with him and I miss our phone calls. I’ll have to settle for thrice yearly visits because our husbands don’t love us enough to buy us airplanes.
I’ve been frustrated with blogging lately. I’ve felt like I’ve been doing too much writing but if you look here the content doesn’t show that story. Sadly the content is living everywhere but here and I need to remedy that. I’m not going to walk away from social networks forever but I am going to take a hiatus, much like the way my friend Sean Percival did from his iPhone.
I’m ready for a 30 day hiatus. During the 30 days I’ll figure out how I want to reenter social networks and define them so that they work for me. Currently I feel like I’m working for them.
So beginning on Sunday, January 27 I’ll be on hiatus from Facebook, G+ and Twitter for 30 days. To prepare for my hiatus I’ll do the following:
- Remove Facebook, G+ and Twitter apps from my iPhone, Windows Phone, Surface and iPad
- Remove text and email notifications from all all three services
- Post this as a note on Facebook
For the FTG (Facebook, Twitter, G+) Free 30 days I will use some social networks. I’ll use Instagram but I won’t cross post. Instagram has never really interrupted my life. I may use twitter or Facebook to comment on other people’s blogs when livefyre or disqus requires a login however if it’s only Facebook commenting then I’ll use it but not post the comment to my Facebook page. In addition I may like Facebook comments here because… well I love it when you guys comment and if I can respond or like your comments I assume you’ll enjoy that bit of interaction. I’ll continue popping over to Linked In because that’s dull and dry and there isn’t a chance in the world that it’ll interrupt my life.
I guess Facebook has made itself inescapable.
This is a hiatus not an ending. It’s not a 100% vacation because that would be an untenable position for a blogger to be in. But I am preparing to spend more time writing here and less time creating content for other people. I’m preparing to have more phone calls with y’all and more text messages and less DM’s.
The only thing I know about this odd hiatus is that I’m prepared to be surprised. I hope y’all can bear with me. Now I’m going to publish this quickly and without editing because if just one of you reads this then I can’t back out.
Hi and goodbye… for the time being. Completely understood. Facebook has become snoresville for me. Twitter lost appeal when banter suddenly became a no-no. As for my blog(s)…. well, I just don’t have it in me at the moment and/or, it seems, whether there, or on Facebook or Twitter, people prefer me in distress and my life in a tailspin. Things have settled slightly since I started blogging and putting it all out there via Twitter & FB, but I’m wondering now if people were just waiting for things to implode. See you in March.
Then I expect a return phone call from the message I left on your voicemail on Friday.
And I found a great lead on an airplane, cheap.
Wha??? I don’t see a voicemail? I’ll call you tomorrow morning lovey… 8am is okay, right?
This will be great. I’m actually going to predict your traffic will spike a little here because it’s the only place to read about what you think.
Enjoy the time away. I’ve done it – a few times, you won’t regret it. Have fun and keep in touch.
Sherree you can’t shake me if you try.
I’ve been feeling this way about Facebook too. Go Jessica!
I have been thinking the same thing…I hate not blogging.
I’ve had the worst time trying to comment to this. First at a bar with friends when I stopped because of conversation with people actually there, and now at home between the desktop losing the wifi and my laptop touchpad issues.
I miss your blog, but the idea behind this post brought up a conversation between me and a friend about the 21st century and internet and being able to know people without having ever shared any real physical space.
It bears thinking about, and I miss your blog. I’m looking forward to your whatever you come up with.
The point of this Samuel is that hopefully I’ll blog more. I’ll just eliminate the other stuff.
I really did get this, but at the moment I finally posted I’d already lost at least three attempts to comment, so when I had a window I typed the quickest thing I could that seemed to convey the essence of all the other thoughtful and well crafted essays you almost got. And since then you seem to have been doing the thing you said. Now if I could just start blogging more again . . .
I’ve always loved your writing and I’d be thrilled if you wrote more
This is so timely for me as I’ve been thinking about doing this too.
I love this, Jessica! It isn’t just the blogging world that falls into this trap of sharing everything on FB and not having enough information to make every day life conversations interesting. I have made a concentrated effort for the last 6 months NOT to share my personally important news on any form of social media (unless it related to blogging, which kind of required social media sharing). When I sat down with my best friend at lunch two weeks ago, we spent THREE HOURS chit chatting and catching up. You are going to find that keeping your personal news “offline,” so to speak, will really enrich your face to face interactions with friends. Good luck!
B’Hatzlacha! If you need any Lucy-Lemonade style legal/MOT ranting, pretty sure you’ve got my email address :), if not – LI works for us dry dull types.
Expect more comments, Jessica. Some of your Facebook pals are waking up to learn you’ve vaporized for 30 days. I had to furnish this blog post link.
I love how you think about this stuff. I’ll be reading.
Well, then, this was exactly the right moment to meet you in real life, wasn’t it? See you at Blogger Lunch next week!