Good afternoon, friends! I began typing up this post on Wednesday, but I drew a blank and deleted everything. Then I started again this morning and here we are 6 hours later with little more than a sentence. Time to buckle down…

Yesterday in my digital marketing class, my professor made the entire class create a Twitter account. For some reason, this really annoyed me. I have avoided Twitter, kept my Facebook page private, censored my Instagram posts and limited the Snapchat selfies. ;) This blog is my main form of public media, and even then the content is filtered for what I will and will not share. I didn’t want my name attached to Twitter and I didn’t want one more dumb social media app on my phone!

Practicing social media modesty is important. It’s so easy to share every aspect of our lives with hundreds of “friends” down to a picture of the breakfast we just ate, detailed statuses about our love life (or lack thereof), and tweets of self-congratulations or self-pity. I think social media is a great and wonderful way to keep in daily contact with the people you care about, but there is definitely a point to where it becomes obsessive or intrusive. Privacy is a powerful thing. I’m not too sure about using Twitter, how many different websites do we need to use to talk about ourselves?

So what do you think, am I totally backwards? Should I be embracing the social media platforms? I may need serious convincing before that takes place. Actually I have been making a conscious effort to put the damn phone down more often. I always refuse to keep the phone in sight while I’m driving or sitting in class. Usually I try to limit it while I’m hanging out with friends too. The whole Be Present thing. But I think I can do a better job of finding an alternative activity when I’m bored than just scrolling through Pinterest. Speaking of which, last night was a fun, phone-free time….

Team “Berries and Beer” (formerly known as the “Sangria Sweethearts”) dominated Trivia Night at the country bar again. (And by dominated, I mean performed mediocre-ly and avoided last place.) One of the rules of trivia night: NO cell phones (their rule, not ours.) Three hours passed by after 8 rounds of trivia questions covering sports, 90s cartoons, classic movies, famous soundtracks and Mario Bros.

Before we were seated, our group sat outside around a fire. I felt a hot spot on my leg, looked down to see an ember had BURNED A HOLE through my skirt and tights. The little orange fleck was still sitting on my thigh when I looked down, so bummed that my brand new skirt had a peanut-size whole in the front. (My roommate Bri cleverly ordered me to cover my ash hole -_- )

Trivia night also revealed that we have no expertise in video games and only a slightly better-than-average recall of any pop culture before 2011. However our riddle skills were on point and we were, in my opinion, the best dressed. ;)

I was the designated driver for the evening to I kept it to one early glass of sangria before the games. We finished up around midnight, and I couldn’t wait to fall asleep. Such a fun way to kick off the LONG holiday weekend with my friends :)

Okay I think I’ll take my own advice, unplug for the rest of the afternoon and go for a walk.

What are your thoughts on Twitter? And how much phone time is too much?