What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being aware of things you are doing and the things going on around you. The idea of mindfulness is understanding how something affects you or you become cognizant of why you are doing something. Within the context of social media, mindfulness would entail being aware of why you are using social media and what you are planning to get out of your time spent on the platform.

How can we learn?

UMBC will sponsor a small and short class period where a knowledgeable faculty member would teach the class the goals and benefits of being mindful. You would walk away from the class with the ability to apply mindfulness to many parts of your life including social media. Once you left the class you would be given a list of helpful tips on how to be mindful, especially on social media.

After the pilot of the program, there would be a university wide email sent out with the same tips that the people that were invited to the class received as well as be possibly invited to attend a similar class.

How long will it take?

Almost no time at all! All you have to do is apply what you learned in the class to every day behaviors. The class will only take about 30 minutes. Using mindfulness could actually save you time in the long run because you have to reflect on why you are using social media, and if you find out it is to waste time you can put it down and focus on another task.

The amount of time for something to become a habit takes 21 days. So, before this period applying mindfulness to the situation may be difficult. There is also little research on how long you will need to approach the situation with mindfulness before it shows benefits. However it can’t hurt to be more aware of your actions can it?

Is it really that easy?

Yes! All it involves is a commitment to the “program.” You do not need anything extra, all you need is your mind and your phone (or whatever device you use social media on). The only thing extra we need from you is to complete a pre-survey before you start and a post-survey a month after you began your mindfulness journey

The hardest part of the experience is changing the way you yourself think and are looking at social media and other parts of your life. While the goal is simple the process of changing your thought can be challenging but the outcome may make it worth your while.