“Disclosure: This post was sponsored by ABC through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about ABC Selfie, all opinions are my own.”
When the folks at POPSUGAR challenged me to go 24 hours without my cell phone/social media I was all “Pfft. I can totally do that.” I actually went social media free for an entire week when we went on vacation. We found an old VHS tape full of old-school Disney sing along songs and Scarlette and I pushed the coffee table aside to make room for a full on dance party. Then we played a lot of Uno.
But that was vacation. On vacation you’re expected to turn your brain off. And also, the beach is like, right there. You don’t need a cell phone at the ocean. Plus as it turns out, phones don’t actually like the water all that much.
(And then when I came back from vacation I learned that APPARENTLY Hello Kitty is not a cat. This is what happens when you stay off social media. The internet tries to play inception with your childhood. This is very risky business if you ask me.)
On a random Tuesday in the middle of September, however, it was a little bit harder than I anticipated. I mean, I have a three year old who I find utterly charming. But I can only talk about the plot of this morning’s episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood for so long before I need some adult interaction. I usually get in my dose of me-time with a bit of Facebook chatting or texting so since that wasn’t an option I did the only thing you can do at a time like that: I loaded Scarlette in the car and drove to the cupcake shop.
So yeah, on my social media free day I had cupcakes, which begs the age-old question “If you eat a cupcake and don’t instagram it, is it still delicious?” The answer is yes, yes it is. It is a cupcake, therefore it is inherently delicious.
But then we spent the afternoon drawing elaborate ice castles with sidewalk chalk and reenacting the movie FROZEN in its entirety. We are very dedicated. Also, I make an EXCELLENT Anna. (Hey Disney, call me!)
All joking aside, we practice Social Media Free Sundays in our house as a way to stay connected and present before we usher in a new week of busyness. It is also really a great way to give my brain just what it needs – a break from the information overload of the internet.
I was asked to take the social media break as part of the promotion for ABC’s new comedy Selfie. It centers around social media obsessed Eliza Dooley, who uses her phone like a security blanket in her quest for instant validation but is trying (and sometimes hilariously failing) to learn to live in the real world.
The characters are a bit caricatured as part of the fast-paced humor of the show. I think it is meant to mimic the quick, biting dialogue of its ABC counterparts, like Grey’s Anatomy, so we’ll see if we come to love Eliza the way we love Meredith or Olivia Pope. My friend Jeanette says she has already been using the show’s quippy lines in conversation, telling people to “Make like Elsa and Let It Go” so it definitely has potential. It made me laugh and I like the context of the conversation about getting our collective heads out of the proverbial “cloud” and so I’ll tune in again to see where it goes
(Selfie premieres Tuesday, Sept 30th 8pm/7pm Central and you can watch the pilot online here: http://abc.go.com/shows/selfie)
