Tl;dr. I’m taking the month off social media but will continue blogging.

A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of the idea of a solitude break; a day, weekend or weekend away from everything spent in solitude and silence. It’s a Christian idea I found in celebration of discipline with the purpose of connecting and listening to God but I’m sure atheist and agnostic friends can see value for themselves in this kind of activity.

I approached my wife with the idea, suggesting that she too could and should take a weekend in solitude at some point. I was even happy for her to do so first and I was okay if she said no. She said it was a great idea and pointed to next weekend (10-11th of July) as the best time.

I got excited about the idea and started rereading a few books I’ve read on similar topics.

Then today I felt rushed and thin from work. I could feel the pressure of our deadlines falling ahead of me and my mind skipping from idea to idea. Fortunately, I recognized the impulse, acknowledged the legitimate deadlines and that certain deadlines weren’t real.

I calmed down.

But an itch stayed with me.

The idea that I don’t need to run or be so frantic. That this is not normal and is negative. That the constant always on communication is part of the cause.

I suddenly thought I should take a month of social media and that as today is the first of the month, today is a great day to start.

So no more logging on to social media for me for July. I can blog and I may have some automatic messages shared but I probably won’t respond to comments on social.

If you have one of my email address, you can contact me via it and I’ll respond. Perhaps I’ll respond to many comments when I come back on social media. Maybe I won’t be back on social media.

I guess we’ll see.