Keeping up with the tradition that we started last year, we took a break from social media in the month of February, with the addition of minimizing our exposure to news websites. I felt like I received all the benefits that I experienced last year, and many more!

It wasn't difficult at all to cut out the noise of social media, and I didn't experience the feeling of FOMO that I experienced last year. I welcomed the mind space, peace, and time that were re-introduced into my life. So I thought I’d share a little bit about my experience this time around.

Hobby Odyssey

I took up some new hobbies. I started using coloring books for mindfulness, and began dabbling in painting with watercolors. At first, I was using watercolor painting as another mindful exercise — painting shapeless blobs, mixing colors, and tracing those blobs with a fine pen (something I later learned is called reverse coloring). This eventually turned to painting subjects, like simple landscapes and portraits of our two cats.

I of course also kept up with some of my usual hobbies, such as cooking, playing video games, and uh, napping.

Physical Media, not Social Media

We made it out to my favorite library (the state library, with its grand entrance, outdoor courtyard and second-floor lanais), and checked out a bunch of books to supplement our hobbies. I was able to reactivate my old library card from over 20 years ago, and therefore able to check out ebooks and audiobooks, which I consumed quickly, and often.

Continuing our theme of physical media, we got back into collecting and watching movies on Blu-ray Discs, as we had purchased a new standalone Blu-ray player for ourselves as a Christmas gift. It was a treat to go to the used bookstore and find a bunch of old favorites, some that aren’t available on any streaming video services. We also started dipping our toe in the world of collecting Criterion discs (the below meme was basically me during the last flash sale).

Me placing my order during the flash sale.
byu/Rodolf1410 incriterion

Sound System

This particular project doesn’t seem to fit neatly into a category, as it feels like it lies between digital and physical media. We both took it upon ourselves to go through our old iTunes Music Libraries and port them over to Apple Music. It was really cool to rediscover lots of our music that we had imported from CDs and haven’t listened to in ages because many of those songs aren’t available on streaming services. It was also really satisfying for me to sort through my music library, finding the best versions, deleting duplicates, and organizing the files.

19,009 songs!

Being Human Beings

We of course took lots of time to just be humans. We had lots of thoughtful conversations with each other, wrote in our journals, and spent time in quiet thought. It was nice to reconnect with each other and ourselves.

A Montage of Moments

I kept up my captures of 1 Second Everyday, so here's that video as a summary of last month:

Signing back on

Once March rolled around, I did not feel any rush whatsoever to dive back into social media, and it took me a few days into the month to sign back on. My curiosity to peek in on the everyday lives of the folks I'm closest to eventually got me to sign back in. I have, however, found myself idly scrolling a few times, and that hasn't felt great. Thankfully, I was aware of this behavior and have been able to set a boundary for myself every time this has happened.

I definitely don’t have the inclination to grab my phone when I’m idle, and start scrolling like I had gotten accustomed to before. If I do grab my phone lately, it’s to listen to an audio book or podcast, or play a quick puzzle game (finity. has been a favorite lately).

I want to continue experiencing more peace, genuine connection, creativity, and fun in my life, and this month away from social media and news was conducive to that. It’s really nice to have this reset once a year, but I’m motivated to maintain the good habits that I established this February.