Death To Social Media
It Didn’t Even Get a Headstone
Three years ago I was caught up in social media. Particularly during the COVID pandemic. Everyone was encouraged to stay confined anyway, so why not spend hours living through other people’s lives on social media? It did give a good median for communicating with family and friends. But, then it began to get boring. You can only get excited about Grandmother Emma showing pictures of her grandkids so many times. The other thing that became too much was everyone showing the cool expensive stuff they had, just to look cooler than everyone else.
I started to think about how to better use my time and get a life of my own instead of trying to live everyone else’s through social media. I stopped Twitter and Facebook cold turkey. I still have an account but have not posted since 2020 and quit reading other’s posts. This created a lot of free time that I could apply to make my life better.
From there I started reading a lot more. I concentrated on personal development books. I did use the computer for this. I got a local library card and began checking out books to read on my iPad and phone. I then discovered the Mobile Alabama Public Library. You can get a non-resident library card for $25 per year. It gives you access to more online resources and self-help applications. Your local library may have some of these resources available.
Mobile Public Library link to the library website
There is a language resource called Pronunciation with 80 languages to learn. Flipster is a resource that gives access to magazines. Chilton Library gives guidance on auto repair. My favorite is Universal Class. These are video-based courses for people interested in professional or personal growth. It has over 600 online courses. In the area of Personal Development, there are over 45 online courses available.
Above list from Mobile Alabama Library
So, I replaced my living someone else’s life through social media to make my life richer through reading and online courses that give me new skills. I studied life coaching here and started coaching a couple of young fellows as a give-back project. I have now read about 20 self-help books and taken 8 online courses on self-help.
Other online resources for books through the Mobile Library are Cloud Library and Hoopla. These give you access to more books than you could ever read. Well maybe someone could read them all. Maybe I should throw the challenge out to see if it can be done. Ha
Social Media is behind me now. I don’t miss it in the least. I have called some friends to talk about life directly since I gave it up. What a novel idea.
