Anti-Social Media

No, I am NOT against social media. I've had a Facebook account for years as well as being one of the earlier adopters of Twitter.

What the title of this post is shooting for is the idea that being connected isn't really being connected. That is, I can have 500 friends on Facebook and 400 followers on Twitter (what do you do on Pinterest? I have no clue.) and be no closer to having any real relationships.

What I've noticed about myself lately is that I'm not doing much of anything on any of the social media sites except for browsing/scanning what's there. I might pop a "Happy Birthday" to someone if Facebook reminds me. I post links to this blog each week. But I'm not engaging anyone on there.

I think a lot of people do the same thing (and a whole lot don't). It's just too easy to hide from people on social media. Being face to face with a monitor or phone screen is nothing like being face to face with a person.

Plus, it takes some time and effort to meet with someone or at least have a real time discussion with them (phone, skype, video chat) without multi-tasking (like chat and IM). And most people feel valued when someone takes time or puts some effort into them.

So, back to the title, while some people absolutely love that Facebook, Twitter, etc can connect them to a lot of people and give them avenues of engagement, there are a lot of people who push deeper into being "anti-social" because of it. For me personally, I've pulled back a lot because it's easier to "hide" than it is to engage and, honestly, part of me wants to know who thinks I'm worth the effort.... Selfish, I know. But it is how I feel.

On to the Quest! I started this week off with a one-two punch of being disappointed with last week's results and with having a weekend with friends at the house. That turned into a "cheat" weekend that involved a combo meal from Zaxby's, pizza and cheese bread fromLittle Ceasars, and something called a Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger (nom nom). I felt so bad on Monday that I wondered if I should just throw in the towel.

But, I rallied and got back on track keeping the rest of the week right at or below the new 1700 calorie per day level. So, with much trepidation, I stepped up on the scale this morning and saw

239.8

Whew! I finally cracked the 240 mark. And didn't completely blow it with the wanton weekend. I don't think I'm going to make the cheat a regular part of the plan but it was good to see that I'm not back into my old habits of "Well, I messed up a little so I might as well dive into the mistakes all the way." Old me would have stretched the weekend into a week. And then the week into a few weeks. And so forth...

It's a good thing future me has current me looking out for him....

Here is the link to this week's LiveStrong data: Week 8

Photo credit to Krypto