Don't Throw Baby Out With the Bathwater
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Don't Let the Tool Use You
Summer vibes
Today something happened which reminded me of the negative effects of shunning social media. I’m keen on finding community, and when we first moved to Durham, I took to the social networks to connect with strangers and hopefully make meaningful friendships. I found a community of parents who, like me, are interested in spending time outdoors with their kiddos. It’s called the free forest school, and we spent most of the fall, winter and spring meeting up with families in various forests in the area. One of the meetups was on Monday afternoons, and although I really enjoyed the group, we stopped attending because Mistral’s afternoon naps have become sprawling affairs that last nearly until dinnertime, making afternoon activities impossible. We kept going to the Friday morning meet-up, but when the weather warmed up, they switched spots and started meeting at the Eno River. While I am a huge fan of the river (and Mistral, too!), I found the spot to be a challenging place to manage a toddler and a baby. This spot at the river has big rocks, fast water, and a lot of slippery fallen logs. Plus, the regulars are mostly older kids who are doing things and going into parts of the river that are not accessible to little Mistral, making for a frustrated toddler. So, we dropped the Friday meetups. And then there was no forest school!
After missing forest school most of the summer, I’d be thinking it was time that I organize my own free forest school meetup. So, this morning, I logged onto Facebook for the first time in several months – and low and behold, there was a meetup happening this very morning! As it turns out, the Monday afternoon meetup that didn’t work with Mistral’s nap schedule had been changed to Monday mornings quite a while back, but I never got the news since I hadn’t checked the Facebook page. Granted, I also hadn’t reached out to anyone to check on the status, so I could have done better.
But I think the lesson for me is this one—I avoided logging onto Facebook because I was afraid of getting swept away into the madness of it all, and as a result, I missed something really relevant, something that could have added fun times and friends to our life. And, while I was on Facebook briefly this morning, a local event for a stand-up comedy show caught my eye. I’ve been dreaming of getting back on the mic, and Facebook alerted me to an opportunity that could be just what I’ve been looking for.
I’d been meaning to get on Facebook for quite a while to reconnect with the community that I’d found when we first moved here, but I’d been hesitant to do so because I didn’t want to reignite bad habits. And so, I threw the baby out with the bathwater… Perhaps it would have been more helpful if I had set a schedule wherein I decided the details of checking Facebook. For example, I could have scheduled intentional Facebook time (30 minutes once a week) in order to check the free forest school page and a few other local pages that I have found helpful in terms of building community. Something like that could help me stay connected while also limiting my access and interaction with the social media site. Of course, like with any addiction, we know how easy it is to go from one small sip to downing the whole bottle. But still, staying aware and intentional about your usage of social media can reign in the power that it has to overtake you.
Facebook is a tool; if only we could figure out how to use it as such, instead of feeling like it’s using us. If you’re like me, struggling to manage your use of social media and your smartphone, perhaps you’d be interested in a digital health consultant. Now that my baby is 7 months old, I’m beginning to emerge from the postpartum fog and I’m taking on a new project – to turn my passion for digital health into a multi-faceted business. I’ll continue writing this newsletter, while also launching a new website to promote my services as a digital health consultant. I have plans to write a book, host workshops, do speaking engagements, and coach clients. If you have experience in any of these areas, I’d love to speak to you! I will take all the help I can get in navigating these new waters.
Thank you for reading and for your support over the years. I look forward to growing with you and bringing my message about digital health to a wider audience.
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