Why I Took a Break from Social Media - And Why I’m Coming Back

Being a member of the “Oregon Trail” micro-generation means I remember college before Facebook and Twitter. However, almost every job in campaigning I have had has involved using social media to help educate advocates and inspire people to get engaged. Further, it has long been a part of my job to develop and maintain a social media space as a “thought leader”. This resulted in me spending large amounts of time and effort on creating informative and relatively well followed online presences that speak on my areas of expertise. Most of my online experience has been a professional and a positive one.

Then came the 2016 election.

Suffice to say that being a woman, a progressive, and someone with vocal opinions on health policy did not always make for a pleasant online experience. Post election I continued to maintain a professional presence, but dramatically cut back on my amount of engagement.

In early 2018, I went through a career transition that allowed me, for the first time in nearly 8 years, to step away from social media. Especially given the stress of other life transitions, it felt like the right move for me to minimize negative and stressful situations. As Bruce Lee says, “The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds.”

With almost a year of break time under my belt, I want to get back online and share my work again. I believe that my decade of campaign and organizing experience have shown me valuable lessons and tricks to ensure success. I know that now is a critical time for many communities to develop strategies to cause policy change.

Additionally, I have decided to set some new guardrails for how I use social media to improve my experience and help me "plant flowers" through my online engagement.

1. Set daily time limits for all social media applications. Wellness apps for multiple platforms have made it much easier to track how long you stay on social media apps. With all the new data about the tie between time online and mental health, setting limits is a great way to ensure minimize the known negative effects of to much social media time.

2. Amplify communities that have knowledge, not privilege. One of my favorite new podcasts is Crooked Media’s “With Friends Like These” with Ana Marie Cox. The program hosts conversations between people from different perspectives and fosters empathy among contrasting communities. During a recent episode, she shared her new year intention to amplify posts and stories online from people who are less represented in media, but likely have more experience with some of the issues of the day. I believe this is a good strategy both to improve my own media diet, but also to use my privilege to inspire conversations that hopefully foster more understanding online.

3. Read the entirety of everything I share. With the 24 hour news cycle in overdrive, it always seems like there is an impossible amount of information to read to be up to date. This has definitely led me to share things online when I have only read the first paragraph. In the new year, I want to be sure I only share things I have read in their entirety, both for myself and for any audiences that follow me.

I am excited to get back online and share my expertise with everyone. I hope the new year will include new learning and new conversations for everyone looking to make positive changes in their communities.

Ready to make a comeback!