Man Notes: Opt Out

Image Courtesy of Massapequa Observer

The other night I spent two hours "opting out" of email notifications, social network notifications, and unsubscribing from email lists.  It took me two hours and I still have more work to do.

Part of what got me into this trap in the first place was either not thinking about these kinds of things when I signed up for a new social media platform, or it was when I signed up for every news outlet, literary magazine, or news aggregate newsletter.  I stopped checking my emails, and I was missing personal communications. I had "opted out" of a legitimate way of communicating with people near me.

The reason?

I had too much information pouring over me at all points.  I had 2 email accounts to manage, at least 5 social media platforms to manage (personally and for work), and text messages on top of everything else.  This is just what comes to my phone.  This doesn't even include what would happen when I logged in to a computer.

It was getting to be too much.  Too much for anyone to manage.

So, I cut back.  I went through my emails after weeks of neglect and I unsubscribed from every advertiser, news outlet, and literary magazine.

I logged on to all of my social media platforms and I unsubscribed from email notifications.

I tried to pull the plug on unnecessary and redundant notifications.

I couldn't do it anymore.  I was starting to feel like there was this mountain of electronic notification building above me that I would never surface from, and so I needed to minimize. I needed to back away for a moment in order to get my head on straight.

I have many jobs.  I wear many hats, and I love participating in all of these aspects of my life, but I need to make sure that I am taking care of myself first so that I still have the energy to get up and face the day, to reply to my friends when they write, to respond to birthday invites when they come in, and to just be a better participant in the parts of my life that matter and not spend so much time deleting email notifications that a friend of a friend liked something that another friend once posted from a website I don't follow.

Image Courtesy of Online Trust Alliance

It is always important that we guard ourselves from unwanted intrusions into our personal life.  It is something I'll think about before I hit "accept" on the next web subscription.  I think it is important.

Promise-ary Post: Dropping off the Grid

My latest promise was to be a little selfish and drop off the grid.  This proved a little harder than I thought.  First, in order to drop off the grid, I needed to ensure that all of my responsibilities were done for the week.  I caught up on grading, made sure my family was good, and that the restaurant didn't have any emergencies.  When all was said and done, I was able to turn my phone off and head to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Image Source

While I was in the theater, my phone buzzed twice.  Once was a call from my wife and one was a call from the owner of the restaurant where I work.  As much as I wanted to get off the grid, my life wasn't letting me.  As a result, I've taken the last two weeks to get away from the internet, the blog, and social media as a whole.  I peeked in here and there, but I did not engage with it on the level I normally do.

What did I learn from this?

Well, I learned it is my natural state to be "unplugged."  I love being untethered from the multiple avenues of stimuli that bombard me every day.  I've kept up with my promises, kept engaged with work and with family, and I haven't noticed a large negative side to the "loss" of my electronic life.  It puts things into perspective for me and I feel like I may try and find other opportunities to unplug in the near future.  The weeks I've been offline have been fulfilling ones and I've used the time to do some fun things with family and friends.

It's not a bad thing to wean ourselves off our devices every now and then.

As I was working on putting this post together and looking at ways in which I could frame it, I found this post from a blogger in Australia.  While I don't agree with the entire breakdown of the post, I do find much of what she has to say enlightening.

The promise post that followed "dropping off the grid" was to clean the house.  Domestic work leads to domestic bliss, right?