Since noticing my screen time crossed the 4 hour-per-day threshold, I’ve been more mindful. Trying to reduce it by no less than an hour-per-day, I’ve set new parameters. How am I doing? Yesterday , I spent 2:16 minutes on my phone, most of which was on account of scheduling meetings via text. I’d say that’s progress.

Yesterday, I popped on to social media for a quick spit, thought I’d see what folks were cursing on any given Tuesday. Before I knew it, I’d thrown 8 minutes of my screen time into the dumpster fire of Twitter and watched it burn. I felt the fire rising as I read their tweets—the Southern Baptist professor whose detractors lambaste her because she’s a woman; the Midwestern man who’s lost his sense of God; the political pundits who cannot fathom following another day of this presidency. Every base emotion was triggered in the span of those six minutes, but when I escaped that vortex I felt a dark sadness seeping in.

In The Book of Waking Up, I wrote this:

What is social media but technological heroin? It’s a distracting hook, an attention manipulator, a time suck. It’s equal parts feast, famine, fear, ego, and political dumpster fire, and the content… is created by the people for the people. It’s our method of mass communication, our way to be heard, our method of connecting with people when we’re alone. This centering of our own message, opinion, need, whatever—doesn’t it etch a groove?

No matter how much I swear it off, I always end up back on the social-media sauce. Why? When I’m alone, my brain plays the groove in the record: Media brings the fix. (#89. Groove 5: Social Consumption)

There are very simple scientific reasons we believe this message, reasons I wrestle onto the page in The Book of Waking Up. But instead of retreading those reasons here, I’ll simply ask: Do you feel the uncontrollable pull to social media, to Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook? If so, ask yourself Why? More importantly, ask yourself, After a good social media binge, how do I feel? Are you angry, sad, full of despair or regret? If so, why do you keep going back to that poisoned well?*

*This is not to say that all social media is bad. I use it and will continue to, just with eyes opened much wider.

Life Examined: Social Media Parameters

Today, take a look at your screen time statistics. How much time do you spend each day on social media?
What does social media do for you? How does it make you feel? Answer these questions honestly.
Write down some parameters for your social media use (examples: no social media during work hours; less than thirty minutes of social media a day; unfollow accounts that drive your blood pressure to Katie-call-the-ambulance levels.)
Visit my thread on smartphone addiction and throw down your two cents.

Grab a Copy and Wake Up

THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.