MOSTLY.

MAYBE I WENT ON FOR JUST A SECOND.

MAYBE I WAS SECRETLY A LITTLE BIT SOCIABLE.

Wait, what does that even mean?

But, hey, I didna say that I was never going to be checking into social media, just that it wouldn’t be as often, and that it wouldn’t be on my phone, right?

Which, to be fair, I’ve been pretty good at sticking to so far. The apps are still absent from my phone. I did check into Facebook briefly because I knew there were some birthdays coming up, and I was rewarded with some pictures of my parents’ sausage puppy (which is obviously, criminally adorable). I allowed myself a quick look at Twitter, just for notifications and the like – I think I did that twice this week which is substantially different to, well, regularly throughout the day every day.

So, a week into this semi-hiatus, what’s it like?

Really, especially when I checked in on Twitter, I would have to admit that I missed seeing what friends were up to and how they were getting on. I felt no small degree of FOMO.

I realised, more clearly than I already knew, that I get urges to randomly share on social media. I’ll half-form tweets in my mind and think about what a great update that would be. I’ll take a picture of the cats being berks and be halfway to clicking share. Then I remember I’m hiatusing and move on. I hadn’t realised how much the habit was there until I was actively not posting.

I still felt like I needed something to fill the cracks of time that need something quick but entertaining, creative filler for the day. Rather than resort to social media, I loaded Feedly onto my phone and filled it with my favourite fiction and friends’ websites. Now when I’m feeling the need to scroll I have some great inspiration to draw from. It’s meant I’ve been getting to read more flash fiction and short stories, and feels like a much better and more constructive way for me to spend my time compared to losing it to the doom scroll.

I actually can’t believe I’d not set up Feedly before (other RSS readers are available). I’m already following some great websites on it, but I’d appreciate any suggestions of good websites to follow, particularly those that serve up flash fiction or short stories in the sci-fi, dark, and weird genres, that I can add to my feed. Share your links in the comments, and feel free to drop your own websites in there too if you want to spread the word.

So, this semi-hiatus on social media is so-far-so-good. Good enough to carry on for, let’s say, at least a month, to see if some of the good habits can bed in against the bad…