i'm addicted to social media

you know you are when you google " addicted to social media".

it's the first thing i check when i wake up, bleary-eyed,

trying to kickstart my brain in the morning.

it's the last thing i check before i sleep, scrolling through tweets, instagram pictures.

when my lunch/dinner date leaves for the toilet mid-meal, i reach for my phone immediately and subconsciously.

when i stop at a red light, i reach for my phone immediately.

i don't know, maybe someone emailed me about asking me to act in a Hollywood movie and i had to reply within 5 minutes or my chance is over, you know?

i'm sure i'm not the only one.

i post daily on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter as much as possible,

keeping it up like clockwork,

subconsciously planning what goes on today, tomorrow.

it's my way of keeping connected to my followers, and i read every comment they make.

i know for sure that this is taking a toll on me, especially when articles like below resonate so much with me and i feel like escaping to an island with no wi-fi where i can just LIVE LIFE and not think about taking picturesque pictures to post.

Taken from http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech/stop-instagramming-your-perfect-life

I'm sorry - I am part of this unhealthy cycle perpetuating this Instagram Envy Effect that is not healthy for my followers, and definitely not for myself.

It's no doubt that everyone wishes to share the happy and beautiful things in their life, and never with bad intention.

Sometimes, it even seems like if we didn't share these happy and beautiful things, it might as well have not existed (cue thought experiment/philosophical musing "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"but that is a whole different issue for another day)

there, i said it.

of course, balance is the key.

so i put all my social media apps into a group on my iPhone so that i have to tap twice before reaching them, and i ended up looking at them A LOT LESS.

that one more tap broke my habit and stopped my subconscious from mindlessly tapping in and scrolling through all these social media feeds.

so as Robin Williams put it,

Go Out There! Live your life! Look at you, taking pictures with your phone! Look, look and then PAINT!!!