Going off the grid

This news video struck home for me.  I have a love/hate relationship with social media.  I love that I can easily get in contact with friends from years ago.  Facebook has brought people back into my life, people who I have missed, people who I am thankful to call friend again.  But it's also a beast in pulling my attention. There are times when I wish my friend would pick up the phone and call me instead of posting on my wall and I am just as guilty of sending a quick text when it is convenient for me instead of making human contact.  A friend recently sent me an email and in it said "by the look of facebook things have been going good for you."  Well sure.  On facebook things appear to be great.  And though granted life is pretty great for me right now I have my "bad" days just like everyone else, I just don't post it in my status updates.  I like to keep my corner of the web as a happy place.  That doesn't mean that I don't wish for a friend to reach out for support.  We are living in a world where people over share about every aspect of their lives from "my kid just went poop on the potty" to announcing a divorce/birth for everyone to see all at once.  It's the illusion of bringing us closer together when in fact it is pulling us farther apart.

I'm trying to be more aware of it.  Making the choice to tune out a little bit in order to tune in to real life relationships.  I need spend more time tuning in to what is right in front of me.  I've had weekends where I have gone off the grid, not checking my email or facebook or twitter feed for days on end.  Mostly it is during a vacation when I should be enjoying the scenery.  I wonder what would happen if we all tuned out of social media for one day.  Just one day, give it up.  Call a friend instead of messaging her, plan a lunch date instead of reading each other's walls.
I wonder...I wonder what the world will be like if we tuned out more.