????8月底，我朋友莎拉的房子給燒了。她是一名社會工作者，沒有租戶保險。她的朋友們立即開始組織起來幫助她。我姐姐在Facebook上發起了一個撲克比賽的邀請，目的就是為了給她募集捐款。還有人在面向個人項目的眾籌融資網站Gofundme.com上創立了一個籌款網頁，希望幫助抵消她清洗自己隨身物品的費用。到目前為止，她的朋友們已籌集了2,400美元。

????當然，我對這一切一無所知。我問我姐姐：“沒有人出面為莎拉做點什么事情嗎？”我聽到她在電話里嘆了口氣。

????她問我：“你停用社交媒體的行動打算什么時候結束啊？”

????今年8月份，我停用社交媒體一段時間。我平靜地預先通知了朋友和同事，之后，我注銷了自己使用的一切社交服務網站：Instagram、LinkedIn、Pinterest、MessageMe、Twitter以及最至關重要的Facebook，希望以此來發現自己過去十年以來究竟獲得和失去了什么。我采取了一種極端的做法。我還停用了即時通訊服務，而且嘗試停止發短信。基本上，我對自己在過去十年里增添的任何新的社交通信服務都進行了一番審視。我希望，通過停用社交媒體一個月，可以讓我對自己撰文報道的這些技術產生新的認識。以下就是我從中得到的一些領悟：

????社交媒體意義深遠：好吧，我已經明白這一點。我之所以在自己的職業生涯中全力傾注于撰寫有關社交媒體的文章是有原因的。但社交媒體在我生活中歷時一個月的缺席增強了它的重要性。莎拉住房遭遇火災這件事是一個極端的例子，表明社交網絡工具如何讓人們能夠迅速而有效地組織起來。這些社交網絡工具給莎拉帶來的遠不止于金錢——朋友們凝聚在一起，向她提供暫作睡床的沙發，幫忙照看小狗，以及一般性的支持。

????大多數任務借助于社交工具效果會更好：今年8月份，我常常懷念社交網絡帶給我的便利。隨著越來越多的服務（從住宅共享網站Airbnb到流媒體音樂網站Spotify）讓用戶使用他們的社會關系，我也已經開始依靠朋友們的決定來對一切事情做出更好的判斷——從在哪里住宿（梅利斯曾住在伊斯坦布爾的那幢公寓樓里，因此那里很可能不錯），到把哪些歌曲放進我的播放列表（謝莉在這方面特別有品味）。

????社交媒體可以世俗：我的社交網站已經成為個人一周七天/每天24小時的通俗小報，通過iPhone，我總是可以立刻享用它，那上面的食物照片以及頭上扎著大蝴蝶結的嬰兒照片往往會吸引我的注意力。（順便說一聲：蝴蝶結并不可愛。）

????濫用不是社交媒體的錯： 9月1日到來時，我沒有立即登錄自己的那些社交網站。我確信，補看一個月的非重要信息會花費幾個小時的時間。我把這項任務拖延至9月2日，然后發現，我只花了大約10分鐘之內，我就已經查看了所有信息和帖文。我意識到，社交媒體令人討厭的地方大多涉及到我使用社交媒體的習慣，而不是這些工具本身。就像任何其他容易讓人上癮的東西（或許是葡萄酒，或者薯片）一樣，我必須找到一些明智的辦法來設定一些限制。

????最終，我停用社交媒體的一個月讓我能夠列出自己的許多壞習慣，注意到自己希望改變的行為。最值得一提的是，我已經開始依靠社交媒體來回避讓我自己不自在的線下社交場合。比如來到一個完全沒有熟人的燒烤聚會，我發現自己就會不知不覺地拿出手機玩，裝作自己正在干某件“更加重要”的事情。而且，每當我實在想讓自己不思考任何事情的時候，我也會求助于社交媒體。一個很好的例子就是：過去的一小時里，我實際上并沒有在撰寫這篇報道，而是不由自主地去Twitter和Facebook網站查看有沒有新的信息。我用它來發呆——就像在付了有線電視服務之后，我可能會在不喜歡的有線電視頻道之間迅速切換。

????My friend Sarah's home burned down at the end of August. A social worker, she didn't have renter's insurance. Her friends immediately started organizing on her behalf. My sister sent around a Facebook invite for a poker tournament to raise funds. Someone else organized a fundraising page on Gofundme.com to help offset the cost of cleaning her belongings. So far, her friends have raised $2,400.

????Of course, I missed all of this. "Isn't anyone doing anything for Sarah?" I asked my sister. I could hear her sigh over the phone.

????"When is this social media diet over?" she asked.

????Last August, I took a break from social media. With fair warning to my friends and colleagues, I signed off every single social service—Instagram, LinkedIn (LNKD), Pinterest, MessageMe, Twitter, and most crucially, Facebook (FB)—in hopes of discovering what I've gained—and lost—over the past decade. I took an extreme approach. I also quit instant messaging services and I tried to stop texting. Basically, any new social communication service I'd added in the past decade was up for examination. I hoped that my month off would give me new perspective on these technologies about which I write. Here's what I learned:

????SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE PROFOUND: Okay, I already knew this. I have devoted my career to writing about it for a reason. But its absence reinforced its significance. Sarah's tragedy is an extreme example of the way in which social networking tools allow people to organize quickly and effectively. They brought Sarah much more than money—friends came together to offer couches, dog care, and general support.

????MOST TASKS ARE BETTER WITH SOCIAL TOOLS: Many times in August, I longed for the ease of my social network. As more and more services, from the home-sharing site Airbnb to the music-streaming site Spotify, let users access their social connections, I have come to rely on my friends' decisions to make better judgments about everything from where to stay (Melis stayed in that apartment in Istanbul so it's probably good) to what's on my playlist (Shelley's tastes are particularly good).

????SOCIAL MEDIA CAN BE MUNDANE: My social sites have become personal 24/7 tabloids, always at the ready via my iPhone (APPL) to absorb my attention with food photographs and pictures of babies with big bows on their heads. (FYI: Bows are not cute.)

????IT'S NOT SOCIAL MEDIA'S FAULT: When September 1 came, I didn't log on to my social sites immediately. I was certain the task of catching up on a month's worth of nonessential messages would take hours. I put the task off until Sept. 2, and then discovered that I had screened all of my messages and posts within about ten minutes. I realized that much of what is annoying about social media concerns my social media habits, not the tools themselves. Just like with any other addictive substance—wine, perhaps, or potato chips—I had to find smart ways to set limits.

????Ultimately, my month-long social media diet allowed me to catalogue my own bad habits—to observe the behavior I hoped to changed. Most notably, I've leaned on social media to remove myself from offline social situations I find uncomfortable. When I landed at a barbecue where I didn't know anyone, I found myself reaching for my phone as a way to hide under the guise of doing something "more important." And I also turned to social media whenever I wanted to avoid really thinking about something. A great example: for the last hour, instead of actually writing this story, I've been checking Twitter and Facebook compulsively for updates. I use it to zone out—the same way I might have flipped through bad cable channels back when I paid for cable TV.