Back Earlier Than Expected, But Still Back and Refreshed

Hello world!

So, I returned from my social media break about 12 hours earlier than I intended to.  I realized what a busy schedule I have tomorrow, with two tests, a half day of work, and meeting a repairman to fix our month old bed frame. Therefore, decided to make my triumphant return tonight, as I have lots of time.

I had a weird feeling of dread as I was doing it, not sure why.  I also drank a Mt. Dew for the first time in a month this evening as well.  Theme of tonight: Returning to Destructive Habits?  Hopefully not...

Word of the wise by the way: You can de-activate Facebook and all of your contacts will still be there.  De-activate Twitter, and they all disappear. Not that's entirely a bad thing though. It gives me a chance to start anew and implement some of those changes I spoke about in my previous blog entry.

... and hopefully stay away from this shit...

Anyways, I'm going to do my best to adhere to my new Social Media "diet". I will curb the flamebait as much as possible, not be a hypocrite, and remove people who are ticking me off, rather than stewing on it.

Also, stuff.

But it has been a learning experience.  I never realized how addicted I was to social networking until this week.  I figured it was natural to be chained to Facebook.  After all, many in our society are.  But it really hit me once I didn't have it.

Speaking of, many people have asked me "Why delete the accounts?  Why didn't you just ignore them?" I guess the logic behind deactivating them was like how my dad would take my Nintendo controllers when I was grounded; not having access to said item made it substantially more difficult to break the banishment then to simply "ignore it". Sure, I could have tried to ignore it, but ask someone who is smoking to just "Ignore the cigarettes, you can quit that way." Knowing myself, and knowing how addicted I was to social networking sites, it was simply easier for me to remove my access to them, rather than just be like "Well... lemme peek this once and... WHAT THE FUCK INTERNET #RAGE"

Internet Rage is for over-compensating nerds what roid rage is to over-compensating millionaire air-head athletes

While I got a lot of contact from some great people during this "hunger strike" I was a little disappointed in the proportion of interactions with IRL people vs. Internet people.  I'm trying not to read into it too much, but it was something I noticed and felt worth mentioning.

I've been reading a lot this week about the effects of social networking on the human psyche and mind.  There's a lot out there about the effects on self-esteem, narcissistic behaviors, depression, addiction, seclusion, loneliness  bullying, etc.  I feel awful thinking something I may have posted at some point adversely affected someone mentally.  I also realized a lot of what these studies and research were saying were BIG reasons I wanted to take this break.  As I had said before, I've been wanting to do this for a while, I even mentioned it to my wife and my therapist.  The actions of a couple of trolls online is what pushed me over the edge.  I'm very glad I did.

Anyways, I feel a lot more refreshed now, taking this week long vacation from internet crap. I'm sure this time Friday someone will have set me off.  But the new rule is to simply walk away, or hit the unfollow/defriend/block/ GO THE FUCK AWAY button.It's a lot better for my blood pressure to try that approach.

Oh, and Twitter wiped out all of my contacts.  So if you were following me on there, you'd have to re-follow me if you want to be connected on there.  Twitter handle is @This_Is_Mike_D

I'm giving you all permission to call me out should I sway back into old habits, I just ask you don't be a douche cannon about it though. :) I'm doing what I can to adhere to my goal for 2013, which is to make myself a better person and by proxy, make my life and surroundings better.  Life is too short to feed the trolls, get into pissing matches about whose bigger in the pants, or petty crap that isn't a big issue anyways.  I'm not going to change the world from a keyboard and I'm certainly doing no one any favors by "actin' a fool"

Cool story, bro.

I've also decided this will be an annual thing for me.  I also encourage all of you to just take a damn break from social networking for a week and see how you feel afterwards.  Seriously, I wasn't holding onto stuff as much, wasn't exploding into anger, and didn't have as strong of an urge to acquire nuclear warheads.  Even tonight, I write this a little hesitant to even be on Facebook or Twitter at the moment. I almost considered going another week.  Alas, I have too many awesome people I actually want to keep in touch with that I'm not going to let a bunch of dweebs ruin.  No, "I ain't got time for that shit!"

Working out, my new-found love of The Sims 3, writing for GameWoof, school, my lovely wife, have all been taking up most of my time, I haven't truly missed being on social media to be completely honest.  I will miss making memes however, as apparently only I found them funny.

Do not be fooled. Behind this relaxed kitten is a deranged feline mass murderer who hates America and sells Oregano to 8th graders on the playground. 

Finally, thanks to a couple people who've been uber supportive in this whole little break, including my amazing and wonderful wife Laurel.  I also need to thank Martha Southerland, Evan Passero, Phil Bruton, Chris Nitz, Keri Honea, and anyone else I might be forgetting.  Seriously, talking to all of you about this really helped me see the problems and make me truly believe I was doing this for the better. I know it sounds silly to be making a fuss about a week break from social networking. But trust me, I check my phone a good 25-40 times a day easily.  I do not kid about this.  Since I've reactivated tonight, I've maybe checked it once or twice.  In the future, I'm not going to make a habit of being on social networking every moment of my time either, especially when with people or out in public, OR ESPECIALLY ON DATE NIGHTS WITH MY WIFE. (She has threatened dismemberment many of times...)

I guess I don't have much else to say.  Hopefully everyone else understands what's up with all of this; I just needed to take a step back from myself and from a network of negativity and people constantly bringing me down in some shape or form.  Pretend I'm a hot blonde when you read this, but "It wasn't you, it was me".  Now envision me riding away on an Eagle, draped in an American flag, because why the hell not?

P.S. Go see The Book of Mormon. It's great, like really great

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P.P.S I seriously miss Doritos...