Exhausted, depressed & incredible frustrated

Falling into the black hole of Facebook is one of my vices. You see, I have carefully curated the people that I’m connected to. Though I have reached the limit of ‘friends’, many of them I don’t know at all and many others only know ‘online’. Facebook is a business resource for me, but it’s also a place I go to find interesting stuff. I find articles and opinions, marketing and advertising, many of which are stimulating, thoughtful and teach me a lot.

And much of it is, for want of a better word, garbage. It wastes time and energy and is the ultimate distraction. It’s a slippery slope. What starts out as an interesting and important article in your profession can easily end up as the top strangest celebrity outfits, and I say this as someone not at all interested in celebrities or fashion!

Mostly, I manage to pop in and out. Sometimes I get sucked in, swallowed up and spit out exhausted, depressed and incredibly frustrated for all the time and energy wasted.

I say these words carefully.

Exhausted, depressed & incredibly frustrated

– because it’s hard to watch everyone else’s perfect lives and perfect businesses and not feel somehow…less. It’s exhausting to feel that no matter how great your stuff is, it can’t match what’s out there. And very few people post how tired, jaded and run down they feel, so if that’s where you’re at, it’s exhausting to never, ever be able to catch up.

– because we crave information and meaning, something that will make a difference, touch our hearts, make us fee alive – and this DOES NOT happen on Facebook. So the experience is essentially flawed, we simply cannot get what we need from flipping from post to post and we end up feeling like we do after eating fast-food – the taste was pretty good but afterwards you feel bloated, slightly nauseous and still hungry.

– because we don’t have unlimited energy, so instead of going out to meet a friend for real conversation or going for a walk in nature, or reading a good book or meditating – all activities that increase our energy, we have used up our supply for this moment and it feels like an awful waste.

So, give it up?

Well, in truth, I’m probably too addicted for that. And there are some great articles and pick-me-up kinds of news, at times.

An alternative to giving it up?

3 things we can do:

1. Make sure we schedule time for the good stuff; connecting in person, nature, meditation, reading real books
2. Limit our time online – we say it to our kids or about kids in general, let’s apply it to ourselves.
3. Take breaks – I mean big chunks of times, a whole day, a weekend or even a week, with no social media.

What do you say? Are you game?

Share your thoughts here.