​SOCIAL MEDIA, STRESS, AND RUNNING PART 2

Cheery winter sun. Taken by PKSenagore February 23, 2014. All rights reserved.

The post from February 15, 2018 last week discussed a potential downside of the use of social media, stress.  Communicating with, constantly checking in, or being interrupted by our phones and other devices may interfere with exercise quality, and even quantity.
 
However, because highly active individuals may use wearables and phone apps to plan workouts, track progress, monitor physical feedback, measure performance, and share data, it’s not a simple decision to power off.
 
The Earned Runs post offered a few suggestions, such as using a phone’s airplane mode function to suspend incoming distractions. 
 
Another alternative to outright disconnecting might be to perform an overall assessment of social media and internet use and then attempt to decrease general dependence on such devices and programs throughout the entire day.  If overall usage is reduced, perhaps powering down (not necessarily off) or stepping away from them during exercise sessions won’t be an experience comparable to caffeine/drug withdrawal.
 
Madeline Quigley, in her blog “The Gal-ivanter” provides readers with “15 Easy Ways to Disconnect from Social Media and the Internet.”
 
As a teaser, here are the first 4 “ways”: have a morning routine, don’t use your phone as an alarm, power down before bed, don’t sleep with your phone next to your bed.  Quigley explains these actions more fully; they are really GOOD suggestions.
 
Another “way” that I personally like: “always be reading something”.  A potential problem is that I read a lot of audio books!!! But the principle behind this bit of advice is sound.
 
Most likely it is not going to be necessary to perform all 15 suggested actions; implementation of only a couple may make a big difference in the number of daily/nightly distractions and disruptions experience related to social media and internet use. 
 
Quigley indicates that her purpose in writing is to “inspire you to make the most of you free time, and start 2018 sans addicted [sic] to your phone (or less addicted to your phone)”. 
 
Earned Runs thinks that with less time devoted to scanning/interacting with devices there might be more time available for physical activity and real social interactions. And switching to airplane mode during exercise might be something to eagerly anticipate rather than dread.

RUN & MOVE HAPPY!

https://www.thegal-ivanter.com/blog/how-to-disconnect-break-internet-phones-productivity