Social Media and Stress and Hands

I've always loved technology. Especially as a deaf woman, being able to text and e-mail has made my ability to communicate so much easier.

But I am beginning to think I've overdone it. Constantly waiting for responses and not knowing if those responses are going to induce drama gets rather stressful and takes its toll. As part of a 10-day health initiative my husband and I are doing, we've cut back majorly on electronic communication. I still scroll through Facebook some, but not NEARLY as much. And I'm not letting myself post unless it is absolutely necessary.

Because I'm on my phone and computer less, I'm also texting and e-mailing a lot less. And I'm finding that I really like it. Living a slower, more in the moment, old-fashioned type of life is... really nice.

Don't get me wrong. I still want to stay connected with everyone in my life. I will still scroll through Facebook and share photos and updates. But I'm finding that maybe having open discussions on facebook, or trying to have a conversation that isn't realtime is more stressful than it's really always worth for me.

Part of this has to do with how much my hands hurt. If there is anything even slightly stressful about a conversation, it gets much harder when i have to try to navigate that conversation with hurting hands. Just writing this much of a blog post puts a lot of strain on them.

(Yes, this health program is mainly about trying to heal my hands and the rest of my hurting body. If that doesn't work, we're going to explore whether I have arthritis or rheumatism or fibromyalgia or something like that. *sigh*)

If you are suddenly wondering "but how am I supposed to contact you!" don't freak out. I'll still use texting and e-mail, but hopefully less. We're working on exploring a new telephone-with-captions technology that could make realtime conversations much nicer. And we're going to set up voice to text options on my phone which will make the texting and e-mails easier (although I'm still going to try and make a focus on keeping anything potentially stressful be a realtime conversation. They turn out so much better that way.)

If praying is something you do, I would very much appreciate prayers. Both that we would find answers for my hands, and that i would have the personal strength to figure out how to use technology and the internet going forwards in the way that is best for my health, and how to communicate that to everyone in my life, and that they would be understanding and supportive.

And don't worry, I love blogging and I already have pretty good perimeters for blogging that keep the stress about it way down. (I am way more likely to find stress in an e-mail or on Facebook than here!) So as long as my hands semi-comply, I'll stay here.