"O be wise, what can I say more?"

This week in class we watched a lot of different videos about social media evolution and had great discussions about how social media and technology affects our world, even behaviors. During our 10 minute break I made a comment to one of my class mates saying that I am feeling overwhelmed just learning about everything digital, the history, the current and what may be in the future. Because of this Psychology of Social Media class, it has dawned on me how dependent I am on technology even social media. Before receiving assignments to use social media in this class, it never occurred to me how much of my time is consumed by social media. I feel now I am using my time more wisely as a result of this class because I am on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube and Blogger. Trying to keep up with everything that goes on on these social media sites I somehow am becoming less and less motivated to go on Facebook everyday. I don't feel the need to constantly refresh my newsfeed. Rather I sign in, click on my Psych Social Media page, post or read something and then sign out. I use messenger to chat to my family and friends but I am no longer just on the newsfeed page for hours at a time. So to be honest, these assignments are helping me to be wiser and more cautious mostly about the amount of time I spend on the internet, especially Facebook.

Last semester for another Psychology class I was asked to choose one thing I really like and abstain from it for a week. I chose Facebook and it was difficult, actually very difficult the first two days and then after that I fell life was fuller. I actually interacted with people in person rather than through Facebook. I had more time to complete assignments because I did not have that distraction anymore. I often found myself with free time and so I would go hang out with my friends, even go to the beach. It was one of the best weeks since being here because I felt like I was disconnected from the internet and connected with real life. I must admit that at some point I had craving for it but it left pretty quick.

One thing that stood out to me throughout this week in class even though we never actually talked about it is the importance of managing time, moderation and just being wise about using technology. I hope that apart from learning about how social media influences our world, our homes etc that it will also influence our personal choices with regards to our daily use of technology.