I claim it!

Social Independence Day!

 

I don’t know about you, but I have a terrible record for going without tech for any length of time. I love pulling out my phone and checking in, posting this, commenting on this and that – even during National Holidays! The 4th of July is especially hard to put down that connected phone because there are fireworks to capture and funny moments to share – with all my closest 30,000 online friends. Do you do this, too?

If you’re game to try Social Independence Day, here are three ideas to explore. I’d love to hear how it goes – AFTER the 4th – in the comments.
 
 

1. Digital Detox

Like I said, I haven’t had much success with this…yet. I did some research and found a few things to keep in mind if you attempt to do this for your Social Independence Day. You can do this on whatever day you want, as often as you want – including every weekend!

• 7 Steps to Planning Your Next Digital Detox
• A noted philosopher’s argument for signing off social media … and enjoying ‘the brief time’ you have left
• A Realistic Digital Detox in 5 Easy Steps

I have a business partner who leaves tech behind every weekend. You can almost psychically feel her leave the online party. I miss her witty Facebook comments and her excellent post moderating skills, but I admire her for doing this detox every week. 

 

2. Sgrouples – detox from the toxic bits of social media

Another way to look at Social Independence, as opposed to digital detox, is to imagine a place where you can have group conversations with just the people you want, while making sure every one of them can actually SEE your posts. This magical place is NOT crawled by Google, and there are no embarrassing ads that show up in your feed. You can create different communities of people in your real life: your book club, your church, your family, your community service organization, your son’s baseball team parents. All of those groups can only see the posts from the members of that group. How beautiful this imaginary magically place would be! Imagine not feeling like you are missing out on fun. Imagine feeling relaxed about being online again. Wow.

Turns out this is NOT an imaginary place at all. It’s right here, right now – Sgrouples.  Not so much a digital detox as a detox from the toxic bits of social media. You can still be connected to family and friends, but not with the Internet “overlords” recording (and selling and profiting) on your every word. I admire this company so much I became one of their Influencers. I am invested in them. I think this system will make a difference in many lives and so I support and promote them. Explore and let me know what you think.

You know that feeling of finding shade on a hot day?
That’s what it feels like when using Sgrouples with your closest friends.

— Phyllis 🙂

Read this (and think about Facebook as your read it) because they are scrupulous about trust, respect and integrity!

• You own your personal information and content. It is explicitly not ours.
• Permissions and privacy are your rights. You control them.
• You control who can access your content.
• You control what, if anything, others can see in public searches.
• We’re a private network. That means we do not track or profile you.
• Your privacy means we do not share your personal information with anyone.
• Your “likes” and “loves” are for you and your friends. We do not monitor or mine your data.
• Your face is your business. We do not use facial recognition technology.
• They’re your friends, not ours. We do not spy on your contact list.
• You have the right to delete your account and all of your information at any time.

 
 

3. TimeBliss.ME

Here’s a different take on Social Independence. What if you have a compulsion to stay online – staring at a screen – or what if you need to stay online because of your job, or the need to stay connected to your family? I have found if I have my time sorted and organized, I can still be online AND enjoy my “in real life” experiences while not having them overlap. I’m no longer overwhelmed!

I’ve been deep, head-down working on this TimeBliss.ME project for some time. I developed this system because of my own intense stress around time management. Now I have a system that works, and want to share how using this calendar-based system can recoup your own personal power!

I know that everything I need to do is ON my calendar and because I know this, I feel safe in letting my phone lay quietly on the table during family events and holiday parties. I don’t feel the need to pick it up constantly, because everything is OK. And I have to say, this feeling has taken a while to achieve. This TimeBliss.ME system can really help you if you feel that compulsion to constantly stare at a screen, or if you have so much work online that you can’t let it go and feel at ease.

“My time tracking and calendar blocking is on hyper drive and I am so much more productive. And more importantly, I see where I need to say no, I see I need to raise rates to afford to have more free time, I see I need to delegate more. I tell you seriously. This is one of those moments in my career that I will remember as one of the most pivotal.” — Jason T. Wiser

There you go – 3 Ways to create your own Social Independence Day. Three different ways to look at “independence” too! I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July Holiday, and I hope that you are surrounded by friends and family who are looking at YOU and not their screens! 🙂