Scroll-free September

There was a call for people to go social-media-free for a month with 'Scroll-free September'.

Along the same lines as Dry January and Stoptober, I think the idea is that after a month not doing something, you tend not to go back to doing it the same as you did before. 

So could you, or are you trying to, go social-media-free for a whole month?

I gave this some serious thought - I had an enforced absence from all means of electronic communication for a week when the lightning took out mine, and most of my area's, broadband at the start of the school summer holidays.

While this was a massive inconvenience - I work from home, after all - it did take me back to a gentler time, a time before we relied totally on our PCs for all our information, and were at the beck and call of e-mails.

There was no Facebook!  Or Twitter!  I remained blissfully unaware of all the things that I normally find on there - admittedly, sometimes useful information like road closures - but there was no negativity, no complaining about dog poo, or youngsters misbehaving, no pictures of dog poo or pictures of stray dogs, and no photos of people's dinners etc.

Admittedly, I'm fairly new to social media in the great scheme of things - I lived for over forty years without it - but one thing I'm yet to understand, and probably never will, is some people's constant need to share every aspect of their lives for all and sundry to see.

I'm a believer in sharing important news with your nearest and dearest, either in person, on the phone or by text; I figure that nobody else is really that interested.

But could I give it up completely for a whole month?  Sadly no, as that's how I find out about what's going on where I live, the good as well as the bad.

I do limit my use though, and choose not to receive notifications.  I've also been trialling 'social-media-free Sundays' (my own creation!), perhaps worth a try if you're also trying to cut down.