Boogers on the Wall

I’ve picked up on a horrible habit the past month while nursing my newborn. I have spent the majority of his 30-45 minute chow times scanning my social media accounts on my cell phone. Considering he eats an average of 7 times per day, that’s about four hours of time I have been wasting online daily.

And it’s starting to get me down.

Don’t get me wrong, I love checking in on people – especially on Facebook – but let me tell you how little things change when you are surfing the site every three hours for half an hour at a time.

I knew something was getting to me lately, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Was it a mild case of post-partum depression? Not nearly enough sleep? Keeping my oldest two boys from killing each other the last two weeks of summer? A combination of all of the above?

I didn’t know exactly, but something was eating at me, leaving me with no desire to do the things I normally enjoy. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt like weeding my garden, and I used to love weeding my garden.

It wasn’t until I read an article from my junk email folder that I discovered a big part of what was making me blue – digital depression.

I think I have been getting way too much computer and cell phone face time.

The brief article talked about the potential computers, phones and video games have to make people feel more connected, but that they can also make people feel dejected.

I’ve got to get a grip and flip the switch on my social media overload.

Just think about what else I could be doing with my spare time. How many books could I read? How much Italian could I finally learn? How much more attention could I be giving my children?

There are a number of things I could be doing.

Now I’m not saying digital overload is the only thing draining me. I am definitely exhausted. Having a new baby has worn me out.

But I think that if I cut back on checking into my “social” life to just a couple of times per day, I will feel better.

So I’ve got new rules for myself. I’m not the type to completely delete my online accounts but there will be no online checking in during meal times, no online checking in while playing with my kids and no online checking in while nursing.

Hopefully logging out will help me log back in to the things I used to love.