Lately I have been noticing some habits, some tendencies of mine, that are in need of checking. Please consider this the check.

Like so many, I live with my phone in my pocket, my hand, or on a nearby surface. Because I stream music from it (a LOT), I almost always hear the few little chimes and dings for messages which means I pick up/look at my phone a LOT in a given day. More often than not, these little check-ins turn in to little scroll sessions, mostly on FB, thanks to the power of the little red notification dot. And lately I’ve been feeling ickier and ickier about the pull this has on me.

I am too distracted by the dots. Too drawn away like I have zero attention span to read a comment or see what’s new since the last time I checked. I don’t mind that my kids see me on my phone; it’s that I don’t think my habits are especially helpful for my own self right now; rather, they warrant a change.

So I did a thing and deleted FB off my phone.

It is ridiculous how twitchy I’ve been about it all.

Of course this doesn’t mean I’ll never touch it again (it being both my phone and FB); there are still messages to keep up with and I’m still on my computer every day for work, so I can get my FB fix there; but at least during the awake hours of my kids, I won’t get sucked in to so many little checks of it. Which again, is as much for my own sanity as anything.

I love social media and all the power and potential it holds for connection; what needs to change for me, for now, though is the power it holds over my focus and my scroll-happy hands.