Off of Social Media
“I take breaks from social media periodically because I think it is healthy to walk away and focus on the life that’s in front of you instead of the life happening on your screen.”
I felt like God was telling me to give up social media for Lent. I had a feeling he wanted me to give it less time for a while and then I was talking about Lent with friends and thought I should give it up for lent. It gave me an end date which makes it a little easier to give it up. The first couple of days without it were hard. I deleted the apps off my phone which is the main way I check up on them. I would often go to the folder on my phone I had them in out of habit to check them. I found myself lost sometimes when I would normally spend time on them. I had more time to think and be creative and connect with others. I’m finding I’m text and talking to the people in my life a lot more. I can’t just rely on social media to see how they are doing. I find that I’m creating stronger bonds with people. I find I’m more focused on a task because I’m not constantly stopping to check notifications and see how many likes I had on Instagram. I found that I spent the most time on Instagram. I’ve come to realize how much time I spent mindless scrolling. I was addicted to looking at my feed and I liked to tell myself it was to get inspired but I don’t think that was the case. I have found how much my confidence as of photographer was wrapped in how many likes I got. I’ve had moments where I wish I could do an Instagram story or just share photos that I took that I was loving. Overall I love the time I have gotten back and not having my life revolve around what is going online.
The first couple of days of being out of work because of the coronavirus I was able to spend time with my parent’s house so I didn’t get too lonely. A couple of days ago I came back and it’s been a little harder not being on social media because I know that a lot of people are home creating content that would be fun to see and would spark ideas for what I could do. I also know that there is a reason that God told me to get off of social media for a while and I just need to be obedient about that. I think one of the reasons he has me off of it is because I have so much of my worth as a creative wrapped up in what others think of my work. I’m not trying to say I don’t want or need feedback about what I do but not getting the number of likes I want or think a post should get shouldn’t also hurt so much. It will be nice to have it in my life to share what’s going on but not having it control my life.
