For my course at Conestoga College I was assigned to go on a digital sabbatical for 48 hours. I must say I did procrastinate on this project a bit, knowing how much my world is dependent on digital media. For my first step I decided to let my family and friends know on Facebook that I will be out of touch for 48 hours so they wouldn’t worry about me. Then I turned all my notifications OFF! This way my temptations would not get the best of me.

As the first day began, I found myself wanting to check my emails every couple hours or so. At work it was impossible to not use my e-mail so I did do the bare minimum that I could without it affecting my job. But I must say it was irritating not being able to look up something quick. Knowing the answer is at your fingertips but unable to get it. I made plans with my husband that night so we went out for dinner to a friend’s restaurant, delicious! He is a good friend so I wanted to “check” in on Facebook to help promote his business but refrained from my impulse to help a friend. Hope he doesn’t take it personally. The rest of the night I was happy enjoying quality time with my husband and forgot about the world happening in my other dimension.

Because I told most family and friends that I was going on this sabbatical the reaction was limited. Some of them were just curious to why.

I am a mom of a 3 year old and decided to make a day of fun in the sun with my little princess. This day was going well for me until we got home and I wanted to post all the fun we had together on Facebook. After the little one went to bed I crashed on the couch to watch some TV. This is when it happened, I picked up my phone and went into my e-mails and sorted through the junk. It wasn’t until I was done that I realized what I had done. I blew it! I was doing so well and so close to the end of the finish line. “Oh well”, I said to myself and reflected on my two day sabbatical. All in all I did well and I enjoyed being unplugged. Focused on my family and blocked out the world. So what if I didn’t know that my BFF went on a hike that day and my Dad was at Peggy’s Cove. I didn’t have to know that minute. I found it out on my own time.

I did however miss out on the news and world events. I was blissfully unaware of so many little and big new stories. I realized that the only way I receive my news updates are through Facebook and Twitter. I will get the odd tidbit from the radio on the drive to work in the morning but other then that, I solely rely on social media.

Social media has enabled us to communicate with a much greater population on a global scale. While this is great, when it comes to keeping friendships alive over great distances, it also increases the demands on people to keep a much larger number of people happy. Seriously, how do I even know 714 people and that is a low number considered for Facebook users.

Social media has impacted my job in the past 14 years because when I started working Mark Zuckerberg was only 18 years old. I think we have always wanted to be able to have a conversation directly to our consumers but it was always one sided. We never really knew what our customers wanted we would just tell them what we thought they wanted. Now we get to have that real conversation, we get to build a stronger customer loyalty and many other functions. We now understand the market and have fine-tuned our strategies. We organize contests and give away prizes and we are excited to see first had how they enjoy our products.

I thought about how easy it would be for a more introverted person to become more of a recluse. With too much emphasis on virtual interaction, and ignore the real world. I sometimes find in our house we will all be in one room on our devices not interacting with each other. I think this can not be a good thing and try to divert to an activity or conversation.

Social media has it’s advantages and disadvantages, but I think its up to each user to use social sites wisely to enhance their professional and social life. Always use caution to ensure we don’t become victims to the dangers.