Lent: The Ultimate Sacrifice...or Nightmare

With Lent upon us, many people have been pondering what to give up during the 40 day period. Traditional answers would be like meat, alcohol, cussing, sex. All are serious sacrifices. But what's scarier? Sarah Evans tweeted:

Last year during the season of Lent I asked people (regardless of faith): If you had to give up ONE what would it be: Twitter, FB or phone?

I almost passed out. I could live without meat and liquor, not too sure about cussing (lol) and I plead the Fifth on the last one. But you're asking me to decide between Twitter, Facebook and my phone? Je..eebies.

This is the world in which we live, peeps. I am horrified to think how I would survive without my phone for one. You remember those days when you had a phone book - a pocket sized book you would take down people's numbers in? I no longer own one of those and God forbid I should lose my phone or be asked to do without it for a week, I would not know how to call anyone, save maybe 3 people. And now with smartphones, would we be dumb without them? Or go crazy? My phone comes in handy when in waiting rooms, for example. Doctors keep you waiting. Airlines. Restaurants. During that time, you can get so much done via your phone - send emails and get some work covered, make appointments, catch up on news.

This brings me to Twitter. I use Twitter primarily for work. I tweet on 2 accounts, a personal account and the company account. The latter I update and use to interact with customers throughout the day and keep a finger on the pulse of our customer base. The former is great because I can follow the people and organisations that interest me, primarily work-related stuff, and access fab content which I read during breakfast or lunch, or in waiting rooms! There is always something new happening in such a short space of time and how else am I supposed to keep up? I have barely touched a newspaper in weeks. I follow CNN and BBC among others to keep current and not have blonde moments while socialising with others. Work-wise, I follow PR and social media feeds because again, keeps me current. Sometimes you find something quirky and interesting enough that you want to share it with your friends.

Facebook. Though I am not as addicted to some people I know (they shall remain nameless in this space, but you know yourselves), I love my Facebook. I can keep in touch with so many friends, who are scattered all over the place and this is where I go "offline" - off work. Work does factor in here occasionally, especially as I also manage the company's FB presence and I think by now my friends know exactly where I work with all the work things I tend to share from time to time. Again, I go back and forth between FB and the office, getting feedback, answering questions, hopefully solving problems.

And at the end of the day, sometimes in traffic, with the help of Blackberry IM, I share a laugh with my peeps about the day, make plans for the weekend and send ridiculous voice notes.

So you're asking again, which would I give up? If I gave up all of the other things - the meat, the sex etc - could I keep Twitter, Facebook AND my phone??

Photo credit: www.blackberryinsight.com