30 Day Challenge: No Social Media, No Online Video

It feels I’m late to write about this. I started my social media absence on 25th of January out of the blue. I reduced social media usage and RSS feeds for quite some time, but I still read a lot on the Internet. Like a couple hours a day.

I also realized I was using YouTube quite often, sometimes for a couple of hours a day. Everybody is talking about the demise of blogging and RSS feeds in favor of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. But I think YouTube will be taking the lion share of online time in the coming years. But that’s a topic for another post.

I’m not addicted to consuming information or being entertained online. I can easily go without Internet for a couple of days if I’m among interesting people. But if I’m alone or online for some reason, I tend to consume information online a lot. Like 16 hours a day, from waking up to falling asleep, sometimes even in one sitting.

I also noticed I have the urge to read or watch interesting stuff if I find it. Sometimes I even sport completionist habits. But I retain less and less of this information. And I don’t spend my time on things which I create. It feels more and more superficial to consume information in this capacity because this information is ephemeral. Nobody will care what I read in a couple of days, even me.

The Challenge

So I made it a challenge. I mean, why not? Let’s see how I feel after 30 days without that much input. Definitely more mindful, hopefully more focused.

And I also have the feeling that the days of wired Internet, (V)DSL or cable, are almost over. That contradicts the statement above – YouTube will be huge, but it still stands. People only use smartphones or phablets. Why should they have two contracts for getting Internet access when one of these is limited to a single location? This is also a topic for another post. For me this is important, because without YouTube and online video in general I won’t use that much data and might get away with just having a single LTE Internet contract. Another insight.

To wrap it up: I’m cutting down on external input like social media, RSS, YouTube, and the Internet in general. This is going to be my February of 2016.