pc: maria lloyd photography 

one of my hobbies is googling symptoms and self-diagnosing, which takes on a whole new level of insanity when you have a kid. of course i [nor my family] never have the actual disease i look up, but of course i love to do it anyway. i am confident, though, in my self-diagnosis of FOBO. what is FOBO you ask? are you just misspelling FOMO? no, i’m not. [sidenote: i used to struggle with FOMO, but have since come to appreciate my quiet friday nights and 8 hours of sleep more than being out and about, so FOMO NO MO].

ok, so FOBO, or ‘fear of being offline’ is exactly what it sounds like: the fear of being unplugged. somewhere were i can’t check email, instagram, or at least have good wifi. it’s separation anxiety when i forget to bring my phone with me to the bathroom [yep, totally honest and raw there], or that moment of quick panic when i wake up and quickly scan my emails for anything dumpster fires that have popped up overnight [that one i can attribute to an old boss of mine that would send emails at all hours of the night. not cool.]

i’ve definitely noticed a shift in my priorities, though, after having a kid. i hate, HATE when logan sees me on the phone. i don’t want her to think i value my phone, tv, or computer more than her. and i’m far from perfect here, because i totally work at home most nights, and while i try to save it for when she goes to bed, it’s not always possible. i even have a hard time unplugging when i go on vacation, because *gasp* what if someone at work needs me? can’t let them down! maternity leave was HARD because i felt like i still needed to peek at my emails and see what i was missing. since becoming more conscious of FOBO, though, i’m starting to take steps to being less attached to my devices. here are a few:

i am consciously putting my phone away more often. not all the time, for all things, but more often.

i try to save my screen time for when logan goes to sleep or is not around. do my work at work [still a work in progress here!!] and keep my evening hours for spending time playing with my fam.

in order to keep myself fresh and writing content that is really true to me, i also spend less time scrolling. i LOVE instagram because i’m a very visual person, but i find that sometimes i am just scrolling, liking, scrolling, liking very meaninglessly. it’s a great source for inspo, but i find myself turning to pinterest more and more for visual inspiration.

overall, i’m trying to be more conscious of my time plugged in, and take more planned, intentional breaks. i eventually want to get to the point where if i forget my phone at home, i don’t feel naked, but i think i have a long way to go there.

what about you? any tips for me? if so, drop a comment below or on my latest instagram post. but then hop offline and really enjoy unplugging 🙂

happy friday!