Out of curiosity I thought "What the heck? I'll give it a read and see what all the fuss is about. I could use a new book to change up my usual literature playlist. It probably won't impact me like it did them."
Whoa.
Famous last words.
Famous last words.
This book. Man, oh man.
Peeps, I loved it.
Jen Hatmaker speaks my language. In fact, despite her love of reality TV, I'm pretty sure we could be friends. She's hilarious, real, raw, and inspiring. She's even a bit of a foodie. This lady is my kind of people.
In the book, the author explores the attitude of excess that is so prevalent in American culture, and her own personal convictions about how she's bought into it. She identifies seven, hence the title, areas of excess in her life, and takes seven months to focus on them. One area per month.
Every single chapter in this book made me stop and examine my own life. My spending habits, how I take my access to fresh food for granted, how much stuff I own, and how much time I waste in mindless social media browsing.
Out of all the areas she focused on (Sorry Jen, only eating seven things or wearing seven items of clothing is just not happening right now.) the issue of social media impacted me the most.
If I stop and really think about it, the time I spend online is embarrassing.
No really, it is.
If I let myself, I can easily waste away 3-4 hours in an evening browsing the Pinter-nets and Tumblr, and not even think twice about it.
3-4 HOURS, PEOPLE.
As Susan Powters used to scream at us 90's kids "STOP THE INSANITY!" (Yeah, I went there! What?)
Every single chapter in this book made me stop and examine my own life. My spending habits, how I take my access to fresh food for granted, how much stuff I own, and how much time I waste in mindless social media browsing.
Out of all the areas she focused on (Sorry Jen, only eating seven things or wearing seven items of clothing is just not happening right now.) the issue of social media impacted me the most.
If I stop and really think about it, the time I spend online is embarrassing.
No really, it is.
If I let myself, I can easily waste away 3-4 hours in an evening browsing the Pinter-nets and Tumblr, and not even think twice about it.
3-4 HOURS, PEOPLE.
As Susan Powters used to scream at us 90's kids "STOP THE INSANITY!" (Yeah, I went there! What?)
(Trust me. It was all the rage.)
There are so many other things on which I could spend my time.
I could read more.
Revel in the mild winter we've been experiencing.
I could spend time writing new blog posts...shocker!
Finish some stitching projects.
Actually cook some new recipes instead of just pinning new recipes.
Carry on a complete conversation instead of periodically checking my phone to see if I have a new re-pin, like, or re-blog.
Carry on a complete conversation...
When did I get so obsessed with an inanimate object that I couldn't talk to a real live human being without checking or at least wanting to check it every 10 minutes...sometimes less?
How pathetic is that?
With all these realizations, I decided that I needed to put what I had just read into action. I needed to take a break. A little shake up was in order.
It was time to say goodbye, if only for a month, to my three biggest time wasters. Catch ya later, Facebook. Farewell, Pinterest. So long, Tumblr.
So on February 28, I turned off notifications, deleted bookmarks, cleared my browsing history, hid app icons, took one last look at my social media loves, and on March 1 faced a world free from The Big Three.
How did I do? Well, tune it for Part 2 to find out.
Impressive. Anxious to hear more…..maybe have a conversation about it!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a chat about it!
ReplyDelete