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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

I’m nearing the end of day two of our Screen-Free Week as I write this, and I will admit, it has been a little challenging.

From the beginning, I committed to being a part of this Screen-Free Week because I wanted to experience for myself what it would be like for all the others who are taking part in this initiative.

Screen-Free Week involves not only screen time on phones, but also computers, TVs, iPads and video games. While I like to enjoy a good show or movie on TV every once in a while, we don’t often have the TV on in our house these days. I knew that wasn’t going to be a problem for me to give that up for a week. For me, the issue was going to be the phone and social media, so that’s what I have decided to focus on.

I have taken a break from social media before, and it can be rough if it is a big part of your life.

I’ll be the first to admit it is for me, as I have not only my own personal page but also the Tribune’s Facebook page and a few others that I oversee for various efforts. And once you’re on a page, it’s easy to digress, and before you know it, you’ve been mindlessly scrolling and just wasted 30 minutes or more.

As I interviewed the professionals for the youth mental health series that has been in the newspaper, I found that many of the things they said about social media and phone use for youth rang true for myself.

I know it’s something I need to work on.

This time around as I prepared to go without social media for the week, I wanted to try a few different things to make it easier.

On Saturday night, I removed my Facebook icon from the main screen of my phone to try to keep my mind off of the notifications I would receive throughout the week. If you’re on Facebook, those notifications can come when someone tags you in a post, when someone comments on your posts, when someone replies to one of your comments, and the list goes on and on. There are many reasons why you can get notifications.

Like Albert Lea High School Principal Chris Dibble told me last month, with every notification the user receives, the user gets a rush. That adrenaline builds up to where you’re anticipating the next rush.

While youth have been particularly hit hard with these effects, adults are also seeing impacts.

I was in college in 2005 or 2006 when I first got my Facebook account, and I’ve been using it now for about 20 years. Seeing how it has progressed since that time, I agree 100% with the statement that social media is set up in such a way to condition the brain to keep coming back for more.

What else have I learned after two days?

I’ve found already after only two days that not being on social media has made my brain less cluttered.

It has also made my job more challenging.

With the social media-focused society that we live in, a lot of people promote their events or businesses on Facebook instead of through a website. And as you might imagine, we sometimes find story ideas on Facebook and social media, so I’m feeling a bit disconnected.

Please give me a call if there’s something you feel is newsworthy this week that I might be missing on social media. While we’d probably hear about it sooner or later, without keeping my nose to the ground there, I don’t want to miss anything either.

I’m curious to see how it’s going for the rest of you participating this week. If you are taking part in the initiative, I’d love to hear your insight of what you’re learning. Let me know how it’s going at the end of the week.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.