In Defense of Not Sharing

My phone sometimes takes random photos.
Here’s one on our way to eat a lobster dinner.
That’s all I have to say.

I’m not going to tell you where we were last week.

There’s no sense in clicking over to my Facebook page; I never checked in. I never even announced we were going away.

I didn’t Instagram any of the trip. I never sent out a tweet with the hashtag #summervacation. I won’t be sharing the photos of my family along with the particulars of our trip.

Not this time.

This time, our vacation was our business and not the business of social media. This time, our trip was our own.

I’d like to say that this was solely a conscious choice to unplug, but my hand was somewhat forced by the fact that the phone and WiFi service on vacation last week was spotty at best. So I took the perpetually spinning circle on my phone as a sign that maybe this time, this trip with my kids was off limits from sharing beyond family and friends. So if you aren’t sitting in a chair next to me, you won’t see the photos or hear the stories of our vacation.

And that feels oddly selfish. Also, foolish, as my Klout score sank and sank throughout the week to an all-time low.

But it’s also freeing and retro and self-protective. There was a lot less of “Hold on while I post this” and a lot more of “Let’s go get hot chocolate.” I wasn’t caught up in everyone else’s daily posts, so I had more room in my brain and my heart for our own experience. I was more present, so we were all more present.

And that was a true gift for us all.