Staying Current

Social media is at times an invaluable tool and at other times a complete drag and/or waste of time. While in Europe I experienced both ends of the spectrum trying to stay current with Facebook and Instagram, and to a lesser degree Twitter. On one hand I was able to share photos and status updates from my travels, but on the other hand doing so became a massive chore that at times I nearly gave up on. People loved seeing my photos, but I lost so many hours uploading and organizing them, oftentimes staying up late into the night, that if it wasn't for this absurd sense of duty coursing through my veins, I would have stopped doing so and just told everyone that they would just have to wait until a more convenient time for me to show them what I was up to. Staying current on social media is also the primary reason why I fell so far behind on updating this blog while overseas, as the time that could have been spent typing was instead usually taken up by making sure people had the latest news and photos of mine. It was something of a relief when I got home and posted the last batch of photos and a final status update. Going forward, I'm not sure what my social media policy will be should I do another extended overseas journey, but it's clear that I'll need to set some boundaries on how much time and energy I put into it just to keep others up to date on what I'm up to.