We don’t need to capture every beautiful moment to fully experience it.

Stepping away from social media can bring us closer to the people we care about.

When fewer things compete for our attention, there is more room for our own lives.

I’m eight weeks into my summer experiment of being off social media, and I’m loving it. At this point, I have absolutely no desire to go back.

And yet, I probably will at some point. I’m an author, after all. I have readers I love to chat to online, books I want to share, and the occasional thought I’d like to put out into the world. There’s also a little voice in my head saying, "But shouldn’t you be on there?" Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn't. Thankfully, I don’t have to decide today.

For now, I’m enjoying this little experiment and paying attention to what has happened in the space social media left behind. When I wrote the first part of my summer experiment, I was mostly curious about how to stop scrolling. Eight weeks in, I’m more interested in what has taken its place.

So far, there have been three things I didn’t expect.

1. Social media can make us feel connected without actually connecting us.

When I first deleted my social media apps, I missed seeing updates from my favourite writers, horse trainers, and various interesting people I had accumulated in my online world. And then I realised something: I didn’t actually know most of these people.

Meanwhile, having lived in seven countries, I have friends all over the world. Although I already see my local friends regularly, I realised I could be much more proactive about staying connected with the ones who........

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